Health News - Martial arts expert who taught Steven Seagal thanks doctor after heart condition recovery

Published: 8 September, 2011
by TOM FOOT

A KUNG Fu master who taught boxer Lennox Lewis and actor Steven Seagal has had his life saved by experts at the Royal Free Hospital after his weight mysteriously ballooned to 27 stone.

Sid Sofos, 47, from Drayton Park, Highbury, was on death’s door after a rare condition stopped his heart from functioning properly, causing water retention.

The “17th scroll grandmaster” found himself unable to move and was confined to his home for a year.

But following surgery he is fighting fit again and has lost an amazing 12 stone in a month.

Mr Sofos, who has a two-year-old son, Harry, said: “I saw various doctors and they couldn’t give me a diagnosis and it just got worse and worse.

“By April this year I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t even move. It was unbearable, especially as I was so active before.

“I’ve been practising professional martial arts for over 30 years and have schools in Tot­tenham, Ireland and America.”

Mr Sofos was taken to the Royal Free where consultant cardiologist Dr Joseph Davar diagnosed him with constrictive pericarditis.

Mr Sofos said: “I was at such a low ebb, I thought my life was coming to an end. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to watch my son grow up.

“Dr Davar was like my knight in shining armour – I owe my life to him.”

This week Mr Sofos presented Dr Davar with a Chinese statue as a token of his gratitude.

It was inscribed with the words: “In the depths of winter you gave me an invincible summer. Thank you for saving my life.”

Mr Sofos underwent surgery to remove the outer layer of his heart at St Barts Hospital.

He has now returned to normal life and is once again practising kung fu.

Constrictive pericarditis causes the outer layer of the heart to become rigid, trapping the heart in the outer layer so it cannot function properly and the body begins to accumulate fluid.

Dr Davar said: “Constrictive pericarditis is a rare condition – I have only seen a handful of cases in my 17 years at the Royal Free.

“It gives me a great sense of satisfaction to know that I’ve made such a difference to someone’s life.

I’d like to thank Sid for his thoughtful gift – it’s taking pride of place in my office.

“I’d also like to thank all his students who have written to me – I’ve had many letters of thanks from them.”

Mr Sofos coached former heavyweight champion Lewis after the ­boxer lost his WBC belt in 1994 and travelled around the world helping him train for comeback fights.

He worked with action star Seagal on the 1996 Hollywood Blockbuster The Glimmer Man – about an state-sponsored assassin who could move so quickly through the jungle that his victims would only see a glimmer before they died.

Mr Sofos has been practising martial arts for 30 years since he went to live in China for a year at the age of 16.

He learned wing chun kung fu and when he returned taught the discipline in colleges across the capital and was later inducted into the American Blackbelt Hall of Fame for martial arts.

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