Doctor who had heart transplant at 29 gets engaged at spot where she suggested her ashes be scattered

A doctor who underwent a heart transplant at the age of 29 after her heart function dropped to just 12 per cent says she now relates “more than ever” to her patients, and celebrated her transplant anniversary by getting engaged to her partner in the spot where she had suggested her ashes be scattered.

Sanjana Kochhar, 30, who works as an NHS doctor, was the first person in the UK to receive a donor heart via the “Heartbox”, a portable machine that pumps nutrients and oxygen to the heart during its journey to hospital, helping to keep it in better condition.

Sanjana first started experiencing chest pains aged 20 as well as realising she was struggling to walk upstairs without getting out of breath.

After seeking advice from her GP, further tests revealed that the third-year medical student had heart failure and she was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), which delivers shocks to the heart when it notices an irregular heartbeat.

Over the years, Sanjana’s heart function dropped from 35 per cent to 12 per cent and she was admitted to hospital with multiple organ failure in October 2022.

Placed on the urgent transplant list, Sanjana received her heart in November 2022 and is now back at work with a newfound understanding of her patients.

Sanjana, who lives in Liverpool with her fiance Paul, 34, who works in accounting, told PA Real Life: “Being a doctor, I knew how risky the operation was. I was so grateful to have survived it that the recovery almost seemed easy, even though it really wasn’t.

“Now, I’m happy to be back at work and helping patients on their own journeys.”

Originally from Newcastle, Sanjana started experiencing chest pains around 10 years ago when she was at university.

She said: “I would get occasional chest pains and I was getting out of breath doing things that otherwise before that would have been quite easy for me to do.”

Concerned, she visited her GP who did some tests and, once back in Newcastle for Easter break, Sanjana ended up in hospital with severe chest pains.

From there, the then third-year student was diagnosed with heart failure and was fitted with an ICD to control her heart rhythm.

She said: “Doctors warned me that if I did some sort of activity or exercise suddenly then I’d be at risk of sudden death.”

Despite living with heart failure, Sanjana was able to lead a relatively normal life and was able to work until 2022, when her heart function dropped and she suddenly became very unwell.

Knowing that a heart transplant would likely be in her future, the doctor was shocked to discover that she would need one so young as, at just 29 years old, her heart was functioning at 12 per cent.

She said: “I remember just coming back from a holiday in Portugal and I didn’t feel particularly unwell but a day later I started coughing and couldn’t stop. I felt like I was really struggling to breathe and I couldn’t get a full sentence strung together.”

After spending a week in a local hospital, Sanjana was blue-lighted to a specialist hospital where she spent just over a week in intensive care before being moved to the cardiac high dependency unit.

From there, Sanjana was too poorly to go home and needed to wait in hospital for a transplant to become available.

Surrounded by friends and family while she waited for a donor, Sanjana recalled how her loved ones rallied around her as she battled with her health.

She said: “My friends set up a WhatsApp group to organise visits so that I always had a friend visiting me every week. My parents would come to see me every day and my partner would drive from Liverpool every week.

“I had a really good support network and I think that’s what kept me going through most of it, especially through the really rough times.”

Working as an NHS doctor, Sanjana had the medical knowledge that many transplant patients do not have which meant she knew just how risky her op was.

She added: “I knew how significant what I was going through was, and how dangerous it was. I knew realistically the chances of me getting a match or me surviving the whole process was going to be quite touch and go.

“In the period of time where I was waiting for the transplant I had become so unwell and we were running out of possible options and things that we could do to manage me until we got a match for a heart.

“In a way, knowing so much about the risks didn’t help at first but I was also able to use my medical knowledge to advocate for myself which really did help keep me going for so long.”

In November 2022, a heart became available and was a match for Sanjana. After just over a month of waiting, the 29-year-old was taken to theatre for the major life-saving operation.

Following her surgery, Sanjana spent a week in intensive care before being moved to a ward where she recuperated for a month.

She said: “I was just so happy to have survived that, in my head, the recovery seemed easier than it was. I think it was actually really hard but I only remember the good bits.

“I lost all the function in my muscles and it took a month to learn to walk again and another month to walk up a flight of stairs. I couldn’t pick things up off the floor because of the pain in my chest, those things were really difficult, but I felt that it was manageable because I’d overcome the worst of it and I felt like I could do those things because what lay ahead was so positive.”

It took two months before Sanjana would walk without too much pain and three months before she could start to lift heavier objects like shopping bags.

Then, Sanjana returned to work nine months after her transplant in a staged return.

She said: “I couldn’t go back any sooner because the medications I was on suppresses your immune system and obviously, being in a high risk environment with patients with all sorts of bugs, I needed to wait before returning.

“Initially I was a bit worried because I knew that there were going to be patients that would trigger certain emotions in me and I was worried about the impact that would have on myself reliving what I’ve gone through but actually, it made me realise how much I loved working and contributing to society and I’ve always enjoyed the work that I’ve done.

“I feel like I understand what it’s like to be a patient more than ever and I can relate to patients a lot better and do my job a lot better. I really value the fact that I have been able to go back to work, that I have survived this event to return and make a positive contribution to other people’s lives.”

Just a couple of days before her transplant anniversary, Sanjana was surprised by her partner Paul popping the question on the north-east coast.

She added: “The place where we got engaged was somewhere that’s quite special to my family. It was where I had very morbidly suggested that my ashes should be scattered when I was really unwell, so we went there and did a rebrand of the place.

“It was really special because I think it rounded off a pretty intense and difficult year. Going through something like that either brings people closer together or pushes them further apart and for us, it brought us closer together and I think it was really significant to be able to celebrate the achievements of the year and the fact that we’ve come so far on such a special day.

“I’ve been able to make contact with the donor family and I just wanted to say how grateful I am to my donor and their family too.”

Sanjana has shared her story as part of the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) Ticker Tapes podcast, where people share honest accounts of living with heart and circulatory diseases. To listen to the podcast, visit: open.spotify.com/episode/7JepMEFBg6QHvlsi2rYjhM