A man who had an “extremely rare” quintuple heart bypass surgery at 34 due to a condition which turns him into a “cholesterol-making machine” has said he has cheated death multiple times.
Simarjot Singh Judge, 36, from London, was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia – a genetic condition which causes high levels of cholesterol in the blood – in June 2022, just months after losing his father Jaspal to sepsis.
The managing partner at Judge Law Solicitors had been experiencing what he thought was “the worst indigestion” for months, but it was in fact angina, a type of chest pain, caused by his clogged arteries.
With one of Simarjot’s arteries completely blocked, another 75% blocked and the other 50% blocked, he said he was a “ticking time bomb” and needed to undergo quintuple heart bypass surgery, aged 34, to save his life.
He was told he was “the second youngest patient the surgeon has done a quintuple on” – a procedure that uses harvested vessels from elsewhere in the body to re-route blood flow around five blockages in arteries which supply the heart.
Although he experienced several complications post-surgery, including sepsis, which killed his father, he has since rebuilt his life with “resilience and strength” and found love meeting his partner Savita Klear.
He told PA Real Life: “I had a quintuple bypass, something that is extremely rare.
“I’ve been knocked down a fair few times in life and I only know how to get back up.
“I’ve rebuilt my life, literally piece by piece… and out of all of this, something that I never thought would happen, because I was on the brink of death, is that I was able to meet the love of my life.”
Speaking about his advice to others, he added: “Life is at some point going to be designed to drag you down and you actually choose how you react to it.
“You can’t just lie there and wait for destiny to take you somewhere; you’ve got to get up and walk in the right direction.”
In March 2014, just months after qualifying as a solicitor, Simarjot’s father Jaspal had “the first of many strokes”.
Simarjot handed in his notice to the law firm he was working at, became self-employed and later set up his own firm, Judge Law, in 2016.
Over the following years, Simarjot said his father had a series of heart attacks and strokes, but he died on October 28 2021, aged 68, due to sepsis.
It was only when Simarjot read his medical notes after his death that he discovered his father had familial hypercholesterolaemia.
“He survived way longer than he was meant to, we called him the cat with nine lives,” Simarjot explained.
“I had been called into many end-of-life conversations and, ironically, he died of something that could happen to anyone – he didn’t die of a heart attack, he didn’t die of a stroke, he died of sepsis.”
Simarjot wanted to take some time off work to grieve, but being a “workaholic” and with a stressful schedule, he never found the time.
He had been struggling with his own health conditions for years – vestibular hypofunction, which can cause vertigo and loss of balance, and a prolapsed and slipped disc – but he had been putting off treatment.
In June 2022, he “finally acquiesced” and agreed a date for spinal surgery – and this is what led to his own familial hypercholesterolaemia diagnosis.
A blood test revealed Simarjot’s total cholesterol reading was 14.3mmol/L – healthy levels should be below 5mmol/L, according to the NHS – and he was told he needed stents inserted to open his clogged arteries.
However, due to the severity of his condition, it was then decided that he needed to undergo emergency triple heart bypass surgery – to reroute blood around three blocked areas in his coronary arteries.
Simarjot’s sister Sharon lives abroad and he requested the surgery take place one week later so she could be with him – but the surgeon informed him that if he delayed the procedure this long, she would be “coming to his funeral”.
Simarjot had been experiencing chest pain for several months and would often sweat profusely after minimal exercise or walking, but he had “no idea” that his symptoms were related to familial hypercholesterolaemia.
“It just transpires that I was having angina attacks repeatedly, but I thought it was indigestion,” he said.
“The point of familial hypercholesterolaemia is that, even if I’m sat here now, my body’s producing cholesterol.
“Regardless of diet, regardless of obesity, it doesn’t make a difference. I am a cholesterol-making machine.”
Simarjot’s surgery took place on June 17 2022 and he woke up around eight hours later in “unimaginable pain” – with doctors informing him he had actually undergone quintuple heart bypass surgery.
The morning after, he said he was vomiting “violently” and was given an injection of cyclizine, an anti-sickness medicine – but this caused a “terrifying” allergic reaction.
“The nurses walked off and I couldn’t move anything,” he said.
“I’m sat in a chair and, for all intents and purposes, I’m paralysed – there’s not a part of me that is moving, except my eyes.
“So I’m looking around, I can’t move my neck, and I just remember blinking at this guy across me and he called for attention.”
The second day after surgery, Simarjot said he experienced a “real near-death experience” after developing sepsis.
He continued: “The world was just changing before my eyes and I thought, ‘I’m definitely slipping away’.
“I could just see white light – like a big cloud walking towards you that is waiting to give you a massive hug.
“To me, it felt and looked like freedom and I was going there.
“I was getting towards it, and just as I was getting towards it, I just remember hearing, ‘He needs a blood transfusion urgently’.”
Simarjot remained in the intensive care unit (ICU) for the following four days, before being moved on to another ward for another 10 days.
He was supported by his sister Sharon and her husband Nav, as well as his friends Nivraj Jassar and Bal Badesha and colleague Naresh Suppal, and he said his diagnosis changed his “perspective” on what is important to him.
“My diagnosis has made me realise I have a massive network of people that genuinely care – it blew my mind,” he said.
He said he experienced subsequent complications post-surgery, including a collapsed lung, which nearly claimed his life again, along with blisters from an adverse reaction to the dressings on his legs.
Despite experiencing “every side effect”, however, he has since made a full recovery with physio, rest and “resilience” – and he has even lost 25kg (four stone) to lessen the pressure on his spine and avoid spinal surgery relating to his prolapsed and slipped disc.
In March this year, Simarjot went into hospital for an angioplasty – a procedure that opens a narrowed or blocked artery – but he said he only ended up needing his arteries to be flushed out.
He initially took 18 tablets a day, but after tweaking his medication earlier this year, he now takes 12 tablets a day and is feeling healthy at the moment.
Along with meeting his partner Savita via an online dating app called Dil Mil, he is playing padel and badminton in his spare time outside of work, and he is enjoying life again.
He would urge others to look into private healthcare, if they are able to afford it, as he paid for treatments which were not otherwise covered by his insurance policy, to complete regular check-ups and to beware of any “warning signs”.
“It’s very surprising to bounce back and be able to do all of the things I love – I’ve cheated death multiple times,” he said.
“But I’ve also been very clear that life is what you create.
“My favourite tattoo on my wrist is, ‘You know who’s going to give you everything? Yourself’, and that quote is one of the things that got me through my surgery.”
