Posted on 05/10/2014 10:22:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Shoham Das, born with "half a heart" 11 years ago, completed another step in his improbable young journey Saturday by kicking a board in half, battling with sticks and grappling with a sparring partner in his goal to obtain a first-degree black belt in mixed martial arts.
With his nervous mother monitoring Shoham's oxygen levels and intake of glucose at West Valley College, the fifth-grader at San Jose's Country Lane Elementary School underwent the same test of mixed martial arts skills as other students at Ernie Reyes West Coast Martial Arts Schools. All were trying to move up another level.
Asked why he likes mixed martial arts, Shoham said, "It's very important to me. It makes my muscles strong." But more than an hour into his two-hour test, Shoham grew visibly fatigued several times and was forced to sit down once while the other students continued sparring.
Minutes later, however, he flashed a thumbs-up when asked whether he could continue.
During a break in which Shoham had an ice pack applied to the back of his neck, Shoham's head instructor, Joao Santana, said Shoham was being graded on his skill level and not on his endurance.
It will be another week or so before Shoham finds out whether his scores from Saturday's test were good enough to elevate him from a red-black belt to first-degree black belt. He and other students who might have fallen short will then have a month to work on any skills and have a chance to improve their scores.
Just getting to Saturday's test once seemed impossible for a 4-foot, 8-inch, 67-pound boy who was born at Stanford Medical Center with a rare congenital heart condition.
By the time he was 4, Shoham had undergone three open-heart surgeries. And he continues to endure invasive heart
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Thank you for posting that story. I had a difficult karate practice today, where I forgot some of the basic blocks and responses. Compared to the kid, my troubles are small. I’m inspired by him. Lucky boy, he has a mom who does not waste her energy trying to wrap this kid up in bubble wrap. He wants to live his life as it was handed to him, imagine that!
Most people have a single right ventricle.
According to this article, the boy has only a left ventricle, and no right ventricle.
bttt
Thank you very much for posting this.
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One of my children has a right ventricle defect, and it can be difficult. Science and medicine have come a long way since it was found, but there is still a long way to go.
Blessings to this child and his family for allowing him the opportunity to live his life to its fullest.
It sounds exactly like my grandson’s condition, and it has a name. Hypo plastic left heart. It is rare, and most don’t survive infancy. My grandson lived sixteen years.
What a nightmare. I hope you had some good times together.
Thank you for those warm thoughts. As it was, we did have sixteen years of very special time together. 24/7
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