A man who underwent an “extremely rare” quintuple heart bypass surgery at the age of 34 due to a condition that turns him into a “cholesterol-making machine” has claimed he has “cheated death” on multiple occasions. Simarjot Singh Judge, 36, was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia – a genetic disorder causing high cholesterol levels in the blood – in June 2022, just months after his father Jaspal passed away from sepsis.
The managing partner at Judge Law Solicitors had been suffering from what he believed was severe indigestion for several months, but it turned out to be angina, a type of chest pain caused by his blocked arteries. With one of Simarjot’s arteries completely obstructed, another 75% blocked and the other 50% blocked, he described himself as a “ticking time bomb” and needed to undergo quintuple heart bypass surgery at 34 to save his life.
He was informed that he was “the second youngest patient the surgeon has performed a quintuple on” – a procedure that uses harvested vessels from other parts of the body to divert blood flow around five blockages in arteries supplying the heart. Despite experiencing several post-surgery complications, including sepsis, which took his father’s life, he has since rebuilt his life with “resilience and strength” and found love with 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.”
He also shared his advice for others saying: “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, reports Surrey Live.
In March 2014, shortly after qualifying as a solicitor, Simarjot’s father Jaspal suffered “the first of many strokes”. Simarjot resigned from the law firm he was working for, became self-employed and later established his own firm, Judge Law, in 2016. Over the next few years, Simarjot said his father experienced a series of heart attacks and strokes, but he passed away 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 hypercholesterolemia. “He survived way longer than he was meant to, we called him the cat with nine lives,” Simarjot said.
“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 told how he had wanted to take some time off work to grieve, but being a “workaholic” and with a stressful schedule, he never found the time.
For years, he had been battling his own health issues – vestibular hypofunction, which can cause vertigo and loss of balance, and a prolapsed and slipped disc – but he had been delaying treatment. In June 2022, he “finally acquiesced” and agreed to 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 so he asked for the surgery take place one week later so she could be with him only to be told by the surgeon 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 hypercholesterolemia.
“It just transpires that I was having angina attacks repeatedly, but I thought it was indigestion,” he explained. “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 underwent surgery on June 17, 2022, and awoke about eight hours later in “unimaginable pain”, with doctors revealing he had actually had quintuple heart bypass surgery. The following morning, he recounted being violently sick and receiving an injection of cyclizine, an anti-sickness drug, which led to a “terrifying” allergic reaction.”
The nurses walked off and I couldn’t move anything,” he recalled. “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.”
On the second day post-operation, Simarjot experienced what he termed a “real near-death experience” when he developed sepsis. He said: “The world was just changing before my eyes and I thought, ‘I’m definitely slipping away’. ” Simarjot shared his near-death experience: “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’.”
After spending four days in the intensive care unit (ICU), he was moved to another ward for an additional 10 days. Supported by his sister Sharon, her husband Nav, his friends Nivraj Jassar and Bal Badesha, and colleague Naresh Suppal, Simarjot acknowledged that his ordeal transformed his outlook on life.
“My diagnosis has made me realise I have a massive network of people that genuinely care – it blew my mind,” he said. Despite facing severe post-surgery complications like a collapsed lung and blistering from an adverse reaction to leg dressings — almost taking his life once more — he pulled through with physiotherapy, rest, and “resilience”.
His recovery included losing 25kg to reduce stress on his spine, to steer clear of spinal surgery for a prolapsed and slipped disc. In March this year, Simarjot went back into hospital for a planned angioplasty. However, it turned out that his arteries only needed flushing.
He started off taking 18 tablets daily, but after adjusting his medication earlier this year, he’s down to 12 tablets and currently feels healthy. Alongside finding his partner Savita through the online dating app Dil Mil, he’s also enjoying padel and badminton in his leisure time away from work, enjoying life once more.
He strongly recommends considering private healthcare for those who can afford it, having paid for treatments not covered by his insurance, ensuring regular check-ups, and staying vigilant for any “warning signs”.
He added: “It’s very surprising to bounce back and be able to do all of the things I love – I’ve cheated death multiple times 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.”