Sanjana said her condition deteriorated rapidly and she could neither walk nor eat.

A woman who started have severe chest pain ended up in critical condition in hospital. Dr Sanjana Kochhar, 31, was in her third year of university in 2014, when she began experiencing heart palpitations and shortness of breath.

Sanjana, also known as Sanj, was 21 when she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy – a general term for heart disease, whose symptoms usually include shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and swelling of the ankles. .

Sanj said she felt she understood his condition at the time because of her medical training. Life continued as normal for her until eight years later in 2022 when she received shocking news.

Sanj, who is now general practitioner in Liverpool, said: “As a doctor I thought I understood heart failure, but experiencing it firsthand was surreal – something no amount of training could prepare me for. I had very severe chest pain and shortness of breath to the point that I had difficulty walking up stairs.

Sanj suffered from irregular heartbeats. After being rushed to hospital, she was diagnosed with acute heart failure. She added: “I felt very, very bad. I ended up with multiple organ failure.

“My heart wasn’t working properly, my lungs were full of fluid, and my kidney and liver function were rapidly deteriorating. I was in a fairly critical state: I couldn’t walk or eat. »

The doctor was equipped with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator – a small device inserted into a patient’s body that can help treat dangerous heart rhythms that can cause cardiac arrest. After being transferred to the Royal Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, Sanj was placed on the urgent heart transplant list on October 31, 2022.

Remarkably, a donor was found and Sanj received his transplant four weeks later on November 28, 2022. Sanj, originally from Newcastle, said: “For me, one of the hardest things to overcome was accept the fact that someone was going to die so that I would have a heart.

“I think as a doctor, it’s a really difficult thing to deal with. Because my job is to save people. In a horrible way, by wanting a new heart, I was waiting for someone to die .”

Sanj was released from the hospital on Christmas Eve 2022 and began his journey to recovery. She achieved milestones that would not have been possible without the heart transplant, such as going to the gym and taking up hiking, yoga and badminton.

Sanj also had engaged for anniversary of her transplant in November 2023. She is also determined to raise awareness of heart disease and is now urging the public to donate to the British Heart Foundation.

She said: “I think I’m in a really unique position as a doctor and a transplant recipient and I think I should use that to help other people. »

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said it was heartbreaking that “millions” of people were hoping and waiting for treatments and cures that did not yet exist. She added: “I’m so happy that Sanj will be able to spend some precious time with his family this Christmas.”