Celebrating the second life

I didn’t play with Barbie as a child; I got hockey sticks and track shoes. Raised to be tough, my twin sister and I were into sports from a very young age,” shares Reena Raju, a district, state and national level hockey player from Bengaluru. Reena is a trained singer too. “Unlike other girls, my sister and I loved getting tanned, didn’t mind broken teeth or dirty clothes,” she further asserts.

Active in physical fitness, Reena wanted to take hockey a step further, when life produced a huge challenge ahead for her. At 25, what she thought was to be a regular fever and cold, turned out to be Dilated Cardio Myopathy (DCM). A condition with a weak functioning heart, the sportswoman had an enlarged heart with weak muscles that couldn’t aid a normal life any longer. With frequent hospitalisation, medicines and sleepless nights, Reena considered her disease as a sport and tried to battle and win.

“I lived through it for about four years and the medicines stopped working at some point. When I had just six months to live, we decided to try the option of a transplant. Unlike other organs, where the donor can donate after life, a heart is removed with the will of the kith and kin of a living person who is brain-dead. The thought frightened me and I kept refusing, but Dr Chezhiyan from Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai, educated the process to me,” Reena adds. After taking a long time to give her consent, Reena’s operation was a successful one. It was a very emotional moment for her because, it was really a life or death situation and, I regained consciousness with happy tears,” rejoices Reena.

Surgery didn’t stop her from anything, as she started cycling just three months after and ran a marathon after six months. Her journey since then has been unstoppable as she is thankful for her second chance in life. Skydiving at 13,000 feet, 15 feet under water sea walk,  8 km Cyclathon, sprint and more adventurous games became part of her life.

Having participated in the World Transplant Games 2017, which took place in Malaga, Spain, Reena was the first sportswoman from India with a heart transplant to participate. “The transplant games are like the Olympics.

Champions from each country, who have received an organ transplant, participate, and the rules are as per the Olympic rules. It was indescribably a proud moment to carry the Indian flag at the inaugural march among 50 other countries with namastes being heard from across the playground!”

Despite giving her best shot at the sprint and badminton mixed doubles, Reena couldn’t make it to the finals. “I wish we had more practice. I couldn’t team up with my partner and practice much!” she shares.

Revealing that the awareness about organ donation and after-surgery medical assistance is low in India, the athlete says, “We are told more about what not to do, than what can be done! More hospitals should educate the patients about after surgery medicines. The Reena Raju Foundation now provides free medical assistance to the transplant patients. We raise funds through concerts and when I realise that I’m singing through the breath of some else’s heart, it is a wholly
different feeling!”

Stating that her only aim is to create awareness about organ donation, Reena concludes, saying, “By 2019, I want to help gather many sponsors for the unrecognised talents of the country. There are many transplant patients with no idea about how much they can achieve. They need to remain fit and active and explore the possibilities of what they can achieve. Everything I do is in memory of my angel donor.”