|
|
|
The Heart to Scale the Matterhorn
16:41 p.m. EDT Aug 6, 2003
Kelly Perkins is on her way to scale the Matterhorn in pursuit of her latest dream. Not simply out to bag another peak, the 42-year old heart-transplant survivor is interested in raising awareness about the life-saving practice of organ donation... a benevolent gift that has saved her own life.
At age 30, Kelly contracted a rare virus that began attacking her heart and left her with congestive heart failure only a few short years later. A transplant in 1995 saved her life, but Kelly’s body struggled with severe rejection as it tried to accept the new heart.
Within five months of her operation, however, Kelly was back out hiking the fire trails near her home. Less than a year after her transplant, she had successfully scaled Half Dome at Yosemite.
In the years that followed, Kelly and her husband Craig have set out on increasingly steeper and more vertically challenging climbs. They’ve scaled Mount Whitney and Mount Fuji and have discovered the “rush” of rock climbing. And in November 2001, the couple climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
For Kelly, the symbolism of the Kilimanjaro summit was significant. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the African continent. And Africa is also where the first successful heart transplant took place in 1967.
These are extraordinary achievements given that a transplanted heart is not capable of communicating with the brain in the same way as one’s original heart. Kelly’s brain is unable tell her heart to beat faster to take in the appropriate level oxygenated blood when exercising. Other systems kick in to compensate, however, there is a delay which makes the effort to climb more challenging.
Kelly and Craig are now enroute to the Matterhorn accompanied by three-time Everest summiteer and photographer, Mike Brown, who will film the ascent. Mike was also the filmmaker for the blind Everest summiteer Eric Weihenmayer and this past spring for Global Extremes Expedition to Everest.
Image of Kelly and Matterhorn 4418m (14,690 ft.) courtesy of ExplorersWeb and www.hydracoach.com
|
