Meet Kelly Perkins
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Age: 45 |
Originally published in Transplant Experience News Vol. 3, 2006
College sweethearts Kelly and Craig share 19 years of marriage and a longtime love for the outdoors. They consider themselves a team, which is why Craig feels Kelly’s illness and subsequent transplant happened to both of them.
In 1992 at age 30, Kelly returned from a hiking trip in Switzerland and noticed some unusual symptoms, including a racing heart. She went to her doctor and learned that her resting heart rate was 190 beats per minute—approximately four times her normal rate. After being admitted to the hospital and undergoing a series of tests, a heart biopsy revealed scarring. Kelly was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy.
For three years following her diagnosis, Kelly took 28 pills a day and experienced so much fatigue from her failing heart that she slept up to 18 hours a day. By November 1995, Kelly had congestive heart failure and was placed on the transplant list as a priority candidate. Kelly was extremely lucky. Less than 24 hours later, a matched donor heart was found and she received a new heart. The elation that she and Craig experienced, however, was brief.
Only one week after Kelly received her transplant, a biopsy confirmed that her body was rejecting her new heart. To help battle the rejection, Kelly’s doctor quickly changed her immunosuppressive therapy. Since the switch, Kelly has successfully maintained the health of her new organ for more than 10 years.
Kelly and Craig have not only resumed hiking, but have also added alpine and rock climbing to their list of activities. Kelly undertook climbing as a way to accomplish three goals: (1) to change her self-image and no longer be stereotyped as a sick person, (2) to build strength, and (3) to explore the capabilities of her new heart and do what no heart transplant recipient has ever done before.
Each mountain Kelly climbs represents another milestone in achieving her goals. When asked why she climbs, she says, “Because now I can.”
The fact that Kelly has been able to safely climb Mt. Whitney (the tallest mountain in the continental US), Mt. Fuji in Japan, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, the Matterhorn in Switzerland, and El Capitan in Yosemite, California, with the physical limitations of having had a heart transplant, is a testament to her ability to balance her condition with her life goals. As Kelly puts it, “Maintaining that delicate balance is my life.”
To bring awareness to the importance of organ, blood, and tissue donation and to demonstrate the quality of life that transplant recipients can experience, Kelly and Craig often tie in blood drives and donor registries to their climbs.
Learn more about Kelly’s amazing accomplishments and see more photos of her climbs at www.theclimbofmylife.com
