Monday 18 July 2016

The bodybuilder with his heart in a BACKPACK: Super-fit 26-year-old suffered heart failure and was too weak to stand – but can now finally train again

Andrew Jones, 26, began feeling breathless and coughing up blood and was horrified to be diagnosed with heart failure due to a hereditary conditionHe was fitted with an artificial heart and has now recovered

A bodybuilder who suffered heart failure was rushed to hospital for a transplant – and now has an artificial heart he carries around in a backpack.

Andrew Jones, from Conneticut, first became unwell in 2012 after struggling to breathe during a run.


He was horrified when two years later he started to cough up blood and developed a high fever.
In hospital, doctors diagnosed the 26-year-old with cardiomyopathy – a hereditary disease of the heart muscle – and soon he became so weak he couldn’t stand, walk or dress himself.
Mr Jones' artificial heart has two tubes that exit the body and are connected to a machine he carries around in a bag. Now, after each gym session he cries with joy as he is so grateful to be alive and working out

A few months later, medics told if he didn’t have a transplant immediately he would die.
As there were no organs available, he was fitted with a pacemaker and an artificial heart – which he now carries around in a bag on his back.

Despite his brush with death, he is now back to the gym and said he cries after workouts as he feels so ‘thankful to be alive’.
Recalling suffering from heart failure, Mr Jones said: ‘It’s something I would never want to wish upon my worst enemy.
He first started experiencing symptoms in 2012 when he became breathless on a run. Two years later he was coughing up blood and was rushed to hospital, where doctors said he needed a transplant or he would die
‘You can’t breathe, you can’t think, you don’t eat and you don’t sleep.

He continued: ‘Living with this disease put me in a pattern with depression and physical pain.
‘I had to stop working because I wouldn’t be able to stand for more than 10 minutes.

Despite having an artificial heart, Mr Jones is able He said: 'Today, thanks to my medical devices, I feel like a new person. I am almost back to the old Andrew that was able to train with passion and intensity'

‘I dreaded going to the kitchen because that meant that I had to go up and down my stairs.

‘I couldn’t even get dressed without panting and gasping for air – my life was falling apart and I just wanted relief.’

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