Shoji’s Heart
Tufts Now | Jacqueline Mitchell
Photo: In June, not quite nine months after life-saving heart surgery, Shoji Inomata participated in the 11th annual Harbor Walk & Run, a 5K that raises money for Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children. Photo: Melody Ko
When this Tufts dental student learned he needed a transplant, his world changedâ€"but his determination to stay in school did not
Shoji Inomata, D15, didn’t feel good. The second-year dental student was short of breath, and his heart was beating erratically. He knew something was very wrong. But when he walked into the emergency room at Tufts Medical Center in January 2012, he never imagined he’d be in the hospital for 256 days.
Just 25 years old, with no history of cardiac problems, Inomata’s heart was failing. And after a seven-month wait for a donor, Inomata was one of 17 adults to undergo a heart transplant in 2012 at Tufts Medical Center, which performed more of these surgeries than any other hospital in Massachusetts last year.
Before he got sick, Inomata, a fit young man raised in California, loved cycling and hiking, “anything outdoors,†he says. His sudden illness, doctors told him, was likely a complication of a viral infection. Inomata had just gotten over the flu, which, in rare instances, can cause damage to the heart muscle, a condition called cardiomyopathy.
Shoji Inomata, D15, didn’t feel good. The second-year dental student was short of breath, and his heart was beating erratically. He knew something was very wrong. But when he walked into the emergency room at Tufts Medical Center in January 2012, he never imagined he’d be in the hospital for 256 days.
Just 25 years old, with no history of cardiac problems, Inomata’s heart was failing. And after a seven-month wait for a donor, Inomata was one of 17 adults to undergo a heart transplant in 2012 at Tufts Medical Center, which performed more of these surgeries than any other hospital in Massachusetts last year.
Before he got sick, Inomata, a fit young man raised in California, loved cycling and hiking, “anything outdoors,†he says. His sudden illness, doctors told him, was likely a complication of a viral infection. Inomata had just gotten over the flu, which, in rare instances, can cause damage to the heart muscle, a condition called cardiomyopathy.
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In California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
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www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
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