A spring evening in April 2021. Gustavsberg resident Ulf Ununger has just settled down at the dining table on the patio when his cell phone rings. The call comes from the hospital in Lund:
“We have a new heart for you. Flight from Bromma is booked. Come here on time.”
“You learn to live”
Already in 2002, Ulf was diagnosed with heart failure. For many years he was hampered by his weak heart. In the end, the situation became untenable and Ulf had a heart pump operated on in 2018.
– It was okay. You learn to live with the associated battery bag that you carry with you 24 hours a day, says Ulf. And ping pong was okay to play even with the battery case.
But then the call came from Lund in 2021 – and since then Ulf lives with a new heart. Who it belonged to before is forever unknown.
– I don’t know anything about my new heart and the surgeon who operated on it, he doesn’t know anything either
more than it’s healthy, he says.
WC silver and EC gold during the summer
With a new heart, the 68-year-old from Gustavsberg outside Stockholm plays a lot – and well – of table tennis.
This summer he has won two international medals. Partly an EC gold for transplants. And a WC silver for veterans in a giant competition in Rome with roughly 6,000 competitors. When it became clear to Ulf that he had reached the World Cup final with doubles partner Göran Aldvik, he was a little in shock. Much like Truls Möregårdh was in the Olympics after eliminating the world number one from China.
– You can see at Truls that it is unbelievable and I recognized myself so well from Rome. It’s sick, it shouldn’t be possible.
– One moment you are lying on the operating table with your chest open and the next you are standing and playing the World Cup final. What I have been able to experience is so incredible and so big. Even if it’s not at Truls level, for me it’s gigantic, says the 68-year-old ping pong veteran.
Want to attract more people to the donation register
Every year, approximately 60 Swedes get a new heart. There are too few, says Ulf, who sees it as his duty to get more people to sign up for the donation register. Only one in five Swedes has done it so far.
– I have already received so much attention from all my friends and acquaintances, so that will be enough. But if I have the opportunity to do something to increase organ donation, I want to do it, says Ulf Ununger.
What is it like to live and play ping pong with someone else’s heart?
– You are grateful and as we transplanted say you only live twice. My good friend and former doubles partner and former national team captain Hasse Kroon says that I am a better table tennis player after the transplant than before. So it’s cool, smiles Ulf.