Weather foils heart transplant climber
Source: Agencies |
July 21, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN American heart transplant recipient who climbs mountains to demonstrate the power of organ donation has been turned back by frigid weather and loose rocks while attempting to summit Africa's second-highest peak.
Kelly Perkins, 48, had hoped to climb Mount Kenya's tallest peak - Batian, at 5,199 meters - but the six-person team Perkins was climbing with turned back after passing 4,877 meters.
"The moment we made the group decision to turn back was punctuated with a combination of relief (based on my symptoms - cold and exhaustion) as well as a good dose of disappointment given my vision of standing on the summit of Mt Kenya," Perkins wrote in an e-mail this week.
Perkins, of Laguna Beach, California, had a heart transplant in 1995, after which she began climbing some of the world's most famous mountains. She was the first person to climb the Matterhorn, Mt Fuji and Mt Kilimanjaro - Africa's highest peak - with another person's heart beating in her chest.
Moving Hearts, a nonprofit organization Perkins founded, is dedicated to raising awareness for organ and blood donation. Perkins' husband, Craig, who was also on the Mt Kenya expedition, has said his wife's climbs show that heart transplant recipients can lead strong, active lives.
Perkins caught a virus at age 30 that destroyed her heart, and was lucky to get a donor heart in time.
Perkins said her next outdoor adventure will take place in September in California's Joshua Tree National Park as part of her organization's "Hearts in Parks" project.
Kelly Perkins, 48, had hoped to climb Mount Kenya's tallest peak - Batian, at 5,199 meters - but the six-person team Perkins was climbing with turned back after passing 4,877 meters.
"The moment we made the group decision to turn back was punctuated with a combination of relief (based on my symptoms - cold and exhaustion) as well as a good dose of disappointment given my vision of standing on the summit of Mt Kenya," Perkins wrote in an e-mail this week.
Perkins, of Laguna Beach, California, had a heart transplant in 1995, after which she began climbing some of the world's most famous mountains. She was the first person to climb the Matterhorn, Mt Fuji and Mt Kilimanjaro - Africa's highest peak - with another person's heart beating in her chest.
Moving Hearts, a nonprofit organization Perkins founded, is dedicated to raising awareness for organ and blood donation. Perkins' husband, Craig, who was also on the Mt Kenya expedition, has said his wife's climbs show that heart transplant recipients can lead strong, active lives.
Perkins caught a virus at age 30 that destroyed her heart, and was lucky to get a donor heart in time.
Perkins said her next outdoor adventure will take place in September in California's Joshua Tree National Park as part of her organization's "Hearts in Parks" project.
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