Reese Hagler, 8, sits in the cockpit of the near life-like replica of an X-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars at Embry Village shopping center in Embry Hills on Saturday, April 16, 2022. Lekiachvili’s neighbors were well aware of his project, which sat under a blue tarp in the garage for five years until his wife convinced him to build out a 30-by-30 feet hangar in the backyard. He is planning to do so again at the Atlanta International Night Market at the town square in Suwanee from 2 to 5 p.m. He has so far brought his X-wing out twice to raise money for medical supplies for Ukraine, including at a Kroger parking lot in Embry Hills this past Saturday. “Russia is like the evil empire and Ukraine the Rebel Alliance,” said Lekiachvili, who first came to the United States in 1994 as an exchange medical student at Emory University before starting his residency in 1997. He wanted to help and contacted the non-profit local chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Committee, which aims to build stronger ties between Americans and Ukraine. Lekiachvili was about finished with the X-wing when Russia invaded Ukraine. He was thrilled when actor Mark Hamill, who played Skywalker, liked one of his Tweets. While working on the X-wing, Lekiachvili spent several years posting videos on Twitter of the build out and teaching workshops about electronics, geometry and tooling, with dozens of kids helping do the work. In the film, Luke Skywalker flew the X-wing starfighter for the Rebel Alliance against the evil Galactic Empire and used it to destroy the Death Star. He didn’t see the original “Star Wars” until he was a teen in the late 1980s on VHS after glasnost made Western films more readily available.

Lekiachvili, now 50, grew up behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union in the country of Georgia as a child and had no access to the “Star Wars” films. Akaki Lekiachilli helps Artimy Osadchiy, 5, onto his near life-like replica of an X-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars at Embry Village shopping center on Chamblee Tucker Road Saturday, April 16, 2022. But this was more difficult, because the mitral valve needed replacing as well.Dr. “We have replaced aortic valves this way since 2007.

“I told him even though traditional surgery wasn’t an option, there was a novel treatment for him and we could implant the valves through the groin.

Heart surgeon Nishant Gangil, who led the operation, said: “The first time I saw John, he was huffing and puffing just walking to the examination room. It was only when John attended a Sunday catch-up clinic last summer – arranged to cut waiting lists after the pandemic – that he discovered he was a candidate for a pioneering heart valve replacement. “If I went for a walk, it felt like my battery ran out halfway down the road. John, from Nuneaton in Warwickshire, said: “I got out of breath just talking on the phone. This time open heart surgery was not an option.Īs his condition deteriorated the father-of-two grew so exhausted he struggled to care for his disabled wife Carol, 73. John Smallwood, 74, was fitted with two valves from a specially bred cow’s heartīut his mitral and aortic valves began leaking again in 2019, allowing blood to travel through his heart in the wrong direction.

Like father like son star wars