“I want to show young people, or anyone else, that heart disease is not the end of the road. It’s not the end of your life.”

Somaneh “Bouba” was born in Senegal, grew up in Mali, and then went on to study engineering in South Africa. It was there that he met Desirée, now his wife and mother to their three rambunctious sons. It was also in South Africa that Bouba was first diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a rare genetic condition that affects cardiac muscle tissue. In 2012, after feeling sick—something akin to an extended flu—imaging revealed the extent of damage to Bouba’s heart. At 26, the lifelong athlete was suffering from heart failure.
Things were manageable until they weren’t. Bouba moved back to Senegal and started an energy services company and a nonprofit. In 2016, while in the US as part of a fellowship program, Bouba fell seriously ill. WIthout radical intervention time would run out. With few options available, he opted to go to Boston, where doctors implanted a left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) to maintain the pumping of his heart.
When we met Bouba he still had the LVAD in his chest, which didn’t keep him from playing with his sons. He started Heart of Giant, a nonprofit based in Boston that promotes heart health, screening, and healthcare empowerment. In the fall of 2022 Bouba was miraculously matched with a donor and given a new, healthier heart. While transplants are never finite events, Bouba’s horizons are opening again as he sets his sights back on Africa and sharing that homeland with his sons.