Meet Andrew “AJ” Jones. He’s a professional fitness model from Farmington, Connecticut. AJ is just like many other models except that he doesn’t have a working heart nor a discernible pulse. As he says about him, “I’m pretty much the best looking zombie you’ll ever see.”
Concerned about the battery life of your devices? AJ will beat you. He needs to be constantly connected to 2 batteries and a computer that he always carries in a backpack, whenever he goes.
“I always have to have batteries charging at night, when I’m going to bed, I’ll plug my phone in, and then I’l l plug myself in,” says AJ.
In 2015, AJ was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It’s a condition where the heart muscle thickens without any cause and the patient must get a heart transplant in order to live. While AJ is waiting for a new heart, he has received a left ventricular assist device- pump that transports blood from the lower heart chamber throughout the body, just like a healthy heart would.
AJ is so pumped on life and won’t let this condition stop him nor slow him down. He constantly shares his journey on his Instagram profile and shares fitness video on his YouTube channel.
AJ is just one of the 120.000 people waiting for an organ on the donor list. AJ even found his own organization called ‘Hearts At Larger’ in order to raise awareness for the need of donors.
One organ donor can save 8 lives, but unfortunately, around 22 people die every day because an organ wasn’t available on time.