2024-05-06 00:09:35
A man was given a second chance at life. A unique operation was performed on him about four months ago by the doctors at St. Catherine’s Hospital. Today, he already dreams of a heart transplant in France.
Martin Kozhukliev is from Varna, but has been living in Sofia for about four years. He works as IT in a large hospital where he keeps all the computers and systems running.
“Ironically, it was in this hospital that my heart problem was discovered. This happened in the spring of 2021. In the midst of COVID-19, I began to experience symptoms that were unusual for me, such as difficulty climbing stairs, shortness of breath, fatigued easily, and noticed that I was short of breath. Unusual things for me, because I lead an active lifestyle”, says the man with the two artificial hearts in the program “This Saturday and Sunday”.
He goes to see one of the doctors at the hospital. He found that his heart was enlarged and the ejection fraction was one third of normal.
“His condition was very serious – he could not walk a few steps without getting tired. Most of the time he was lying down. The minimal effort he exerted made him tired. He was constantly on intravenous drugs to help the contraction of the heart,” says Prof. Dimitar Petkov from St. Catherine Hospital.
Doctors fitted Martin with two devices known as artificial hearts – one in the left and one in the right ventricle of the heart.
“Since then, I’ve always carried a backpack with me. She weighs about five kilograms. It supports my two artificial hearts,” explains Martin.
“This device is a pump that is placed primarily in the left ventricle of the heart. In extremely rare cases, whose heart has weakened on the right side, it is also placed on the right ventricle. This is the first time the devices have been fully implanted in the body. Otherwise, we have placed two devices, but outside the body,” explains Prof. Petkov.
The maximum time a patient can live with this device is 15-16 years. According to Prof. Petkov, this is completely comparable to a heart transplant.
Martin will still undergo the transplant, as he has decided that this operation will be done in France. He says that his condition is variable after the placement of the two artificial hearts, and he wants to return to his active lifestyle as quickly as possible, writes bTV.
“Unfortunately, due to the low number of donors in Bulgaria, my chances of this operation happening here are very small. I started looking for options abroad. The health fund would help with the operation itself and my treatment, but it does not cover my expenses during my stay in France. With transplants, the downtime cannot be predicted, because it is not clear when there will be conditions to perform the operation itself – it could be a month, it could be a year,” says Martin.