Heart of the matter: With 18-year-old’s heart, this Raj farmer still farms every day

Jaipur: At the Hanumangarh grain mandi, 43-year-old Suraj Bhan blends in with other mustard farmers until his story sets him apart. Rajasthan's first heart transplant recipient, Bhan has spent the past 11 years living with the heart of an 18-year-old donor while continuing to work his four-bigha farm.April 2 marked 11 years since Suraj Bhan received the donor heart. Since then, he has kept turning up—at the mandi and on his farm in Jorawarpura village—refusing to slow down.His days run on routine. He wakes at 5 am, heads to the fields in the morning, returns to rest in the afternoon, goes back out in the evening, eats simple home-cooked food and sleeps early. The discipline, he says, is as important as the surgery that saved him."I choose to work hard in my agriculture field rather than leading a sedentary life post heart transplant," Bhan told TOI.He has also sown wheat on two bighas and expects to harvest it within the next two months. The wheat, he said, supports his family through the year.Even after a transplant, his thoughts stay on farming: seed quality, pest attacks and falling cotton yields, not hospital memories. After the wheat harvest, he plans to sow cotton, though he says farming has become tougher.Earlier, he used to get around eight quintals of cotton. Now, poor seeds and pests have cut that down to barely three to four quintals.Still, he keeps at it.He manages his health with the same care. Every three months, he travels to Jaipur for a check-up. He takes medicines on time, avoids outside food and sticks to meals cooked at home."This keeps me healthy," he said.Bhan's medical ordeal began 19 years ago, when a valve surgery went wrong and badly damaged his heart, leaving it functioning at only 10%. As his condition worsened, doctors intervened. On August 2, 2015, Dr Murtaza Ahmad Chishti, director of cardiovascular-thoracic surgery at Mahatma Gandhi University of Medical Sciences and Hospital in Jaipur, performed Rajasthan's first successful heart transplant.