Shocking...The man that carries his heart in bag

This is the heartbreaking story of a bodybuilder

who suffered heart failure and was rushed to

hospital for a transplant. After the successful

transplant, the man now carries his artificial

heart around in a backpack.

Dailymail revealed that 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. Just

months later, he was told he can only survive if

a transplant was immediately carried out.

However, because 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.

Now, he is 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.

‘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.

‘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.’

Mr Jones even launched his own charity, Hearts

at Large, to raise awareness for organ donations

and has over 14,000 followers on his Instagram,

@FitnessWithAJ.

Grateful to be alive, he breaks down in tears at

the gym as he is so happy he is still able to train.

Cardiomyopathy (literally “heart muscle

disease”) is the measurable deterioration for any

reason of the ability of the myocardium (the

heart muscle) to contract, usually leading to

heart failure.