Athlete returns to sports after two heart transplants to motivate others

The national-level hockey player from Bengaluru happens to be the only person in the country to have undergone two heart transplants. Her ordeal with her failing heart began when Reena was 25. 

“I was suffering from common cold, cough and fever from which I could not seem to recover,” said Reena. 

“While I experienced bouts of vomiting and stomach infections, doctors assumed that I was suffering from complications related to acidity and put me on antibiotics accordingly. Because I also struggled to breathe, I went in for an ECG, for which my doctor even scoffed at me, stating that my heart was fine,” Reena told DTNext. 

Claiming that it took the doctors a month to diagnose her condition, she said, “They realised that I was suffering from a condition called Dilated Cardio Myopathy in which the heart’s ability to pump blood is lessened. By the time the doctors diagnosed it, my condition was terrible.”

“My heart was functioning only at 15 per cent and I barely had any chance of survival,” said Reena. 

After the medicines that she was given to sustain her heart stopped working, Reena was left with no other option but to go for a heart transplant. And she thought it meant the end for her. 

“I was given six months to live. My family and I were clueless about heart transplants. It was extremely scary, and I was not mentally prepared for it. It was then that I realised Tamil Nadu’s position in terms of organ transplants and I approached Dr KM Cherian at the frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai who had performed such surgeries,” she said. 

After her transplant, Reena threw herself back into her old life; she returned to sports and sang with her donor heart that she christened ‘Angel’. 

“Six months after my transplant, I participated in a 3.5 km marathon. I wanted to create awareness not only on donation but also on transplantation. I wanted patients to look at me and believe that there can be a new lease of life. I also sang at music concerts in memory of my donor,” said Reena. 

She then participated in an eight-kilometre cyclothon, 15-feet underwater sea walk, 13,000-feet sky dive and won the title of being the first female transplant athlete to represent India at the World Transplant Games. 

Right after that, Reena was overcome by cardiac allograft vasculopathy which is a coronary artery disease that affects long-term survival. 

The disease is rare and according to Reena, it could have been caused by the prolonged use of drugs that weakened her immunity system. 

“Surgery would not have helped the condition so I had to get another heart transplant by the end of 2017. Unlike the first transplant, the second one was more challenging as I took over a month to get out of the hospital,” she said. 

It has not been a year yet and the athlete has returned to cycling and singing and enjoying a short break in the US before returning to work in Bengaluru.