He is 28 years old, he thought he had torn a muscle and they tell him that he has 'seven months to live'

A

thought she had pulled a muscle, received the worst news, a

that left her in shock. 

The British

had been included in the prestigious

list , in the category of

of Europe, was diagnosed with a

, reports

is

a type of tumor that occurs in the heart, usually in the right atrium, according to

, and blocks blood from flowing into or out of the organ.

Scientist Kirsty Smitten has a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) in her arm.

chest pain, muscle pain 

Smitten woke up suddenly with

last November.

Because he traveled a lot to the United States for work and took planes, his mom thought it might be a

, so they went to the hospital.

“All my health was absolutely fine.

I didn't have any heart rhythm problems or anything," Smitten told

.

He revealed that doctors suspected he had a

and prescribed him to take some codeine.

However, he sensed that something else was wrong.

It was then that

which revealed a

“They found a

 in my heart, which was obviously shocking, because I had no other symptoms before,” he remarked.

who loved playing hockey and soccer.

Cardiac angiosarcoma is a type of tumor that occurs in the heart.

At first, the doctors did not think the tumor was malignant, because it is an extremely rare diagnosis.

The worst diagnosis and unprecedented surgery

It took doctors

for worse,

the perspective was very bad:

when they finally did, they told him there was a

The bad news included that

, but because Smitten is a scientist, she did more research on the disease, finding that some people had

in surgery.

Smitten received a second opinion from the

, a cancer care center in London.

She agreed to carry out the surgery, which would give her only a

Smitten, 28, traveled the world giving lectures.

Because this cancer affects so few people, there isn't much published research on the disease, and even though the disease is so severe,

.

"If you see me now and before when I'm diagnosed, I still look absolutely fine," explains Smitten.

And she points out, "If it wasn't for the

in my arm, no one would know I was sick."

“My friends say, 'How are you getting through this?

Because you look exactly the same.

I can still walk and exercise as if nothing had happened”, warns who used to give lectures all over the world.

Work of scientist and drug

Despite the devastating diagnosis, the young woman continues to work at her business, MetalloBio, which develops a new class of antibiotics.

She was completing her PhD in microbiology at the University of Sheffield, where they created a drug that kills antibiotic-resistant superbugs, including those that can cause

reported

 .

Other pharmaceutical companies took an interest in the development, and Smitten was offered funding to establish MetalloBio in March 2021.

It is not by chance that the scientist is now realizing how important her potential medicine could be.

The cancerous tumor obstructs the entry or exit of blood from the heart.

“Now I see how important my job is, because if I have an infection I have about an hour to get intravenous antibiotics before it becomes fatal because with chemotherapy I don't have an immune system right now,” Smitten said.

The scientist found a

for those with cardiac angiosarcoma, but confided that she had difficulty finding patients with the same disease.

“They are usually people from 20 to 30 years old.

I don't think they know why, and at that moment, I had my whole life ahead of me," he said, and closed with a lapidary sentence: "