Valentine’s Day
And his story began in 1982 when he fell in love at first sight.
Deepak Patel, builder and business man and an ex-patient of cardiomyopathy, laboured to win love of his lady luck Sapana for about eight years or more. Patel fell for her when she was barely 14. However, firstly, she rejected his proposals. “I recall having rejected him for more than seven years,” says Patel’s wife Sapana. “But he was extremely determined. He would follow me everywhere I would go. If I went for a stay at my cousin’s or a friend’s place, he would park his vehicle in front of that house and wait for me to come out from that place till morning. These things irritated me a lot at times. But he followed me till he entered my heart,” she admits shyly.
Finally, Sapana agreed to marry him in 1990. But the fairy tale entered into a phase which was not all that happy. “The first decade of happiness ended swiftly,” says Deepak. “And, soon I developed grave health problems.”
“I was diagnosed with a cardiac problem, and a periodstruggle began,” recalls Deepak. But with his love by his side, he recovered from it. “I could come out of this health problem only because of Sapana,” says Deepak. “I was advised to go for a heart transplant – an extremely complicated procedure. While we spent months in Africa which was the only country where getting a donated heart was possible at that time, each day was tough. I was completely bed-ridden and many other organs in my body including kidneys and lungs barely functioned due to low blood supply,” says Deepak.
However, timely medical help came from Johannesburg. “When we heard that we have found an organ that matches Deepak’s requirement, we felt as if God’s blessings have finally reached us,” says Sapana.
“Eight years after undergoing a complete heart transplant I am happy that the new heart too beats for me,” adds Sapana. After change of heart, with the help of his lady luck, Patel wants to use his new lease of life to develop the network for organ donation Shatayu, which creates public awareness about vital organ donation.
