Vagner Rocha recently opened up about a frightening chapter in his life – his recent diagnosis with heart failure.

Joined by his son Achilles Rocha, the two discussed the series of events that unfolded after ADCC and led to a shocking discovery about Vagner’s health:

After the ADCC, I started feeling kind of bad.
It was kind of a heavy thing.

I wasn’t feeling anything wrong, my weight started to go down, my legs were all swollen.

Despite these warning signs, Rocha didn’t initially grasp the gravity of the situation.
He carried on with his daily life and training, unaware that his heart was functioning irregularly.

It wasn’t until a routine blood test raised red flags that doctors began digging deeper.
Tests soon revealed the root of the issue: AFib, or atrial fibrillation – a condition where the upper chambers of the heart beat erratically while the lower chambers keep pace:

It showed that I was with a wrong beating, in English it’s called AFib.
The heart is literally beating, the bottom part is beating normally, and the top part was like this [samba].

He realized something wasn’t right when his resting heart rate skyrocketed, even without any physical exertion:

My beating was, I was standing, it was 120, 130. It was doing nothing…
I spent 5 days at the hospital, looking at my heart, 120, 130 without lying in bed…

The doctor called me: “It seems that you had a heart attack already. Your heart is so big, so dilated for so long.”

He recalled receiving the urgent call on his way to the gym:

The doctor called me… He said: “Man, your heart is very bad and your beatings are very irregular, you are in a lot of danger.”

What surprised Rocha most was how asymptomatic he felt:

I was normal, I had training in the morning,
I was fine, there is nothing wrong.

Since the scare, Rocha has made serious changes to his lifestyle, including cutting caffeine out of his routine:

I used to take a cup of coffee and a pretender, I used to go to Tatami, I used to train in the morning…
I used to drink at night again, I can’t, I’m not drinking (anymore).