Patient Story

Meet: Bobby Dhawan

• Age: 48 (at implant)
• Diagnosis: Dilated cardiomyopathy
• Implant date: Dec. 5, 2007 
• Transplant date: Aug. 11, 2009
• Time on the Total: 615 days
• Residence: Geisenheim, Germany
• Hospital: Heart & Diabetes Center NRW 
• Surgeon: Dr. Michiel Morshuis

My Failing Heart

My heart problems started in 1996. I was in the Dominican Republic for a holiday with a friend of mine when I suddenly became very weak. I could not even carry my own bag. At first, my friend thought I was joking with him, but I told him I had no energy and I couldn’t breathe.

I went to the doctor and he told me I had water in my lungs. I didn’t know what that meant. The doctor said, “This is serious. Please go to the hospital when you go back to Germany. You have problems with your heart.”

When I went to the hospital, they told me I had an enlarged heart and it wasn’t functioning properly. While normal output is around 75%, my heart was only pumping 20-25%.

In 1998, my problems worsened and I felt terrible. The doctors said my heart  muscle was very weak and probably not repairable. All they could do was not let it deteriorate further.

They put me in rehabilitation for six weeks. I was about 15 kg (33 lbs) overweight. I stopped drinking alcohol completely and they put me on a low calorie diet. After I lost the extra weight, I felt much better. For the next year, I felt absolutely perfect. My heart function went back up to 50-55%. My cardiologist said such a big improvement was very unusual.

A year and a half later, I had a repeat of how it all started. I went through rehabilitation again and felt fine until 2000 or 2001. The cycle of getting sick, then getting better, kept repeating. Eventually, the intervals became smaller and smaller.

A Matter of Life and Death

In 2007, I lost consciousness and hit another car head-on. I crashed into a wall at 80 km (50 miles) per hour. I went to the hospital and they said my heartbeat was irregular and extremely high, around 180-200 beats per minute.

I was putting on 400-500 grams (1 lb) of weight every day. In two months, I put on 25 kg (55 lbs) of weight. It was extra water in my body which was not being exuded properly. I couldn’t walk or even stand up.

I was sent to the hospital in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, and put under very heavy medication for five days. On the seventh day, they told me, unless we put the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart in you, you will die within the next 48 hours.

On the morning of my Total Artificial Heart operation, my father flew to Germany from India. I told the doctors, “Until my father comes, I’m not going to get operated on.” Once I saw my dad, I thought, whatever happens, it is ok.

Life with the Total Artificial Heart

When I woke up from surgery two days later, the first thing I saw was my wife and my mother standing next to my bed in the ICU. They said I opened my eyes for a few seconds but I didn’t recognize them.

On the fifth or sixth day, I stood up for the first time. Two weeks later, I could walk around the whole ICU. I was transferred to the step down unit.

With the Total Artificial Heart, my health was picking up extremely fast. Even the nurses were surprised. I used to walk faster than the nurse who was helping me push the “Big Blue” driver that powered my Total Artificial Heart. I wanted to get my body fixed up quickly because I wanted to go home.

On March 15, 2008, I finally got to go home using the European portable driver.

With the European portable driver I was completely mobile. It was freedom! I did everything! I could go for a walk, go to a bar, go to a restaurant and go meet my friends.

I really wanted to drive my Harley Davidson. I thought about strapping my portable driver to my back and going for a ride but it was too dangerous. If I fell, I could break the machine and put my life in danger.

Better Than a Human Heart?

With the Total Artificial Heart, my health was so good and I felt so strong. I told myself, ‘I don’t want a human heart anymore, I want to keep my Total Artificial Heart.

On July 28, 2009, I got my first offer for a donor heart. However, after the doctors examined it, they told me the heart was infected (septic) and they had to decline it. They said for people with the Total Artificial Heart, they give them the best heart they can get, they don’t take any chances.

Exactly 2 weeks later, I got my second offer for a donor heart. I wasn’t nervous at all this time. My wife was trembling and crying. She looked at me and said, “You’re so quiet and so cool, what is the matter?” I said I am excited but not nervous because I have a lot of faith in the doctors.

The Best Thing I’ve Ever Done

The doctors said the donor heart matched perfectly, like it was made for me. Usually the transplant surgery takes 7 to 7 ½ hours, but mine only took about 6 hours. Within a day, I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was my wife. That was the first time I realized, my life has been saved.

Today, I think the donor heart transplant is the best thing I’ve ever done. I feel like a newborn person. My office is in the basement, and I can climb 28 steps in one go without huffing and wheezing.

The Total Artificial Heart not only saved my life, it saved my family’s future. My taxi company has 17 cars and 35 drivers, and my wife wouldn’t have been able to run the business alone. Today, my donor heart is working really well and I am back running my business. Other than having to take anti-rejection medication, I feel really great.

Words of Wisdom

Don’t wait too long to receive the Total Artificial Heart. The longer you wait, the more work the device has to do to bring your body back. My organs, including my kidneys, were shutting down prior to the implant. The Total Artificial Heart had to build up my system again and then I was able to receive my heart transplant 19 months later.

Today, I celebrate two birthdays: the day I was born, Sept. 22, and the day I received my new heart, August 11.

Normally, I do not allow bumper stickers to be placed on my taxis, but I make a special exception for organ donation stickers, including one from my daughter which reads, “Don’t take your organs to heaven - heaven knows we need them here!”