Man, 29, gets new heart after too much exercise

CHENNAI: At 29, Swaroop Mittapalli loved going on long bike rides, time in the kitchen, and his job as an assistant director in films. But, a sudden fervour for fitness left him with a ruptured heart.
In February last year, after four hours of rigorous exercise for over a week and a crash detox diet, the inner layers of his coronary artery tore off the outer layer in spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) — a condition where blood flows into the space between the layers and clots, cutting off the flow through the artery, warranting a transplant.

On Monday, a week after the transplant, Mittapalli said he ended up working out for 3-4 hours a day to remain fit. “Last February, I thought was a good time to start. I went on a crash diet of just fruit and vegetable juices. I would run for four hours,” said the man who was part of movies such as Surya-starrer ‘24’. After he suffered a cardiac arrest, he was given a coronary stent but his heart muscles were too weak.

“His heart was damaged so much that it just couldn't pump the way it should. The stent restored the blood flow, but his heart never recovered,” said cardiologist Dr Sai Satish. “It’s important to remember that a heart attack victim is not always a paunchy middle-aged man whose idea of exercise is lifting a drink from the nearest bar. Any rigorous unaccustomed exercise or even stress during labour can cause rupture,” he said.

On April 2, Dr Sai Satish met Mittapalli in the Apollo Hospitals emergency room with a low pulse and blood pressure and his heart functioning at 18%, and a team led by Dr Paul Ramesh did the transplant on Mittapalli on May 2.

While it is important to exercise, it necessary to understand each person has a threshold, say experts.

“A person should prepare for rigorous training with healthy diet. When the threshold goes beyond limits, it can cause severe disharmony,” said physiotherapist Deepak Mudaliar.