With a donor heart, 23-year-old won bronze medal at a global sports event

Beyond a win at the World Transplant Games, 29-year-old Rahul now counsels and encourages donor families and organ recipients. ‘Once the transplant is done, a patient has to wait six months indoors to avoid organ rejection and infection. Then they can resume their normal lives, return to their colleges or jobs as the case may be,’ says Dr Sandeep Seth, Professor of Cardiology, AIIMS, Delhi

A resident of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul is also a trained chef and works with Madhya Pradesh Tourism.

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Twenty-nine-year-old Rahul Kumar Prajapati had never thought that a heart transplant would not only give him a second life but also help him fulfil his childhood dream of becoming an athlete. He has just won a bronze medal in discus throw at the World Transplant Games, a sporting event organised every two years by The World Transplant Games Federation, a UK-based non-profit organisation that aims to promote amateur sport among organ transplant recipients, living donors and donor families.

Rahul, who begins his day with yoga, transitioned into the athletes’ prep routine with his new heart seamlessly, never feeling exhausted. “It is a myth that your transplanted heart means you lead a sheltered and limited life. I trained for badminton in the morning and discus throw in the evening. Doctors had advised me to monitor my blood pressure and heart rate and calibrate my activity patterns if they went too high. I bought a smartwatch that helped me develop my endurance limit,” he says.

A resident of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul is also a trained chef and works with Madhya Pradesh Tourism. But he chooses extraordinary feats to convey the message that a donor heart cannot just save lives but help recipients reach their maximum potential. He had participated in the National Organ Transplant Games in Mumbai in 2022 to support an NGO that supports kidney transplants. “I won a gold medal in the 500-metre run and came to know about the World Transplant Games there,” says Rahul. Another NGO supported him, and Rahul flew to Perth, Australia. He tried his hand at both badminton, where he got the fourth position, and discus throw, where he ranked third. “I knew that I had to win something and after the badminton loss, devoted all my energies towards winning the discus throw event. That’s how I got the bronze,” says he.

Even before his heart got transplanted, Rahul was a fitness enthusiast and wanted to join the Indian Army.

Rahul says that participating in the World Transplant Games has boosted his confidence and given hope. “I still remember that day vividly when I was flying abroad for the first time. Although I had done all my tests, I still asked my doctor if it would be okay to take a long-haul flight. But when I landed and met transplant recipients from all over the world, I was confident and broke free of the limits I had set on myself,” he says. And armed with his new achievements, Rahul now participates in talk shows, rallies and hospital events to talk about organ donations.

Even before his heart got transplanted, Rahul was a fitness enthusiast and wanted to join the Indian Army. But he realised that his body was not cut out for it when he turned 17. During board exams, he had high fever and severe coughing bouts that left him debilitated. “I loved badminton, but I would tire out so easily that my grandmother suspected that something was off. So, she asked my mother to take me to a hospital,” says Rahul. His parents took him to Baraut where Dr Pradeep Jain diagnosed that he was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart chambers thin and stretch out, growing larger, making it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. He was referred to AIIMS, Delhi, where his treatment started under Dr Sandeep Seth, Professor of Cardiology, who runs a heart failure clinic.

He was prescribed medication, which held him in good stead till 2017. But on December 11 that year, he suffered a heart attack and a paralytic stroke and was rushed to AIIMS emergency. He came out of the paralysis but developed left ventricular dysfunction, a cardiac disorder that results in insufficient delivery of blood to vital body organs. He was just 23 then. So, Dr Seth suggested a heart transplant and put him on a waiting list. He got a donor within two months, an accident patient who was declared brain dead. “All I knew was that he was also 23. I don’t know much as the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation (ORBO) department doesn’t share these details, but he was my saviour. On February 17, 2018, I got admitted for surgery,” says Rahul. But hours before his surgery was to begin, the donor’s family refused to part with the heart. Finally, they were persuaded and counselled by the ORBO team.

Then followed his real test, that of patience and obedience. He remained in the hospital for two months and then at his house for almost a year, sequestered from infection. “I am a sports enthusiast and remaining inside the house was a difficult task. I asked the doctor if I could roam on the terrace at least. But he told me that no organism or animal should bite me, and I should not pick up any kind of infection,” he says.

“I loved badminton, but I would tire out so easily that my grandmother suspected that something was off. So, she asked my mother to take me to a hospital,” says Rahul.

After a year, Rahul got a job as a chef in Hotel Samrat, Delhi, but he had to give it up during the pandemic as contracting Covid infection would have been risky for him. Over time, Rahul adapted his body to his old fitness routines. He gradually went up to 500-metre runs and resumed badminton. Says Dr Seth, “Once the transplant is done, a patient has to wait out six months to avoid rejection of the new organ. Then they can resume their normal lives, return to their colleges or jobs as the case may be. If the heart is fit, there is no reason why they should set limits. The reason we have separate games for organ recipients is because they could be disqualified from normal games for being on steroids. That’s the only deal-breaker that stops them from going mainstream.”

He explains why each patient should be extremely careful in the first three months, particularly taking their medication on time. “This is the time the organ recipient needs for stabilisation and adaptation of the new organ. Post that, regular follow-ups once every three months should be done life-long,” says he. “And should you contract the mildest infection, even common cold, you have to contact your treating doctors. And if they aren’t available for some reason, then they need to rush to the hospital. We have given clear instructions that if transplant recipients come to the hospitals, we have to be contacted immediately. They don’t have to go through OPDs or emergency rooms,” Dr Seth adds. Should they also monitor their heart rate to know how much they shouldn’t exert themselves? “No. Nothing,” says he.