Andrew Jones: Meet the fitness model who walked with an artificial heart in his backpack for over 2 years

Andrew Jones: Meet the fitness model who walked with an artificial heart in his backpack for over 2 years

Andrew ''AJ'' Jones, a professional fitness model from Farmington, Connecticut, was diagnosed in 2012 with a rare medical condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

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The condition leaves the heart muscle thickened without any obvious cause.

Jones needed a transplant, but since he was placed on a waiting list, he received a left ventricular assist device, a mechanical pump that transported blood from his lower heart chamber throughout his body just as a heart would.

Without a discernible pulse and a working heart, he relied on an artificial heart, constantly connected to two batteries and a computer that he carried in a backpack wherever he went.

Andrew Jones: Meet the fitness model who walked with an artificial heart in his backpack for over 2 years
Andrew Jones: Meet the fitness model who walked with an artificial heart in his backpack for over 2 years. Image: Andrew Jones
Source: Instagram

Although he didn't have a self-functioning heart, Jones continued to do his press-ups and other gym routines even in his hospital ward with gadgets attached to him.

His experience with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy informed his decision to establish his own organisation called Hearts At Large to raise awareness for the need of donors and create a network for those in need of donations.

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Jones found a matching donor and underwent a heart transplant three years ago.

YEN.com.gh has compiled five best photos of Andrew ''AJ''Jones.

1: Andrew Jones shows off his scars.

2. Jones lifts metals in the gym.

3. Fitness model doing his press-ups.

4. Jones refusing to be bed-ridden by his conditions doing press-ups in a hospital ward.

5. Fitness model shares before and now photo to show progress.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported a mother of one who chooses to remain anonymous has given a bizarre account about her nine-year relationship with a man who is now a Member of Parliament.

In a message to Obaa Tima of Hitz FM, the lady claimed that she agreed to be in a relationship with the now-MP after he lied about being single.

''Obaa Tima, I have been in a relationship with this guy for nine years now. When I met him he had two kids but he told me he's no more with the lady so I agreed to go out with him since it isn't a crime to be with someone with kids. I always kept asking why he didn't marry the mother of his kids and he tells me he doesn't love the lady,'' she said.

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12-year-old boy to graduate from high school and college in same week

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Source: YEN.com.gh

Authors:
Nathaniel Crabbe avatar

Nathaniel Crabbe (Human-Interest editor) Nathaniel Crabbe is a journalist and editor with a degree in Journalism from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, where he graduated in 2015. He earned his master's from UPSA in December 2023. Before becoming an editor/writer of political/entertainment and human interest stories at Asaase Radio, Crabbe was a news reporter at TV3 Ghana. With experience spanning over ten years, he now works at YEN.com.gh as a human interest editor. You can reach him via nathaniel.crabbe@yen.com.gh.