Heartfelt Hikes

I offer this page to show the value of and successes possible from the collective actions that lead to a heart transplant. Before my transplant in 2018, my heart performed at about 15% of normal so walking the stairs in my house was difficult. I tired quickly from any activity and therefore didn’t do hiking. I lived several years with an overly large, stiff, weak, and fragile heart on the verge of total failure at any time.  Now, my new heart performs as normal and I’m an avid hiker who explores several hilly miles with ease and joy. This page is intended to:

Thank organ donors for their generous and selfless decisions to give when they no longer can use what another person desperately needs.

Thank every person who works now, and ever previously worked, in a transplant related field, starting decades ago with research that guides what medical teams do today.

Recognize that transplant professionals in every specialty throughout the long chain truly are heroes, each sacrificed much of their own lives to learn and perfect their skill which saved my life and continues to keep me alive.

Make clear that surgeons, while indispensable of course, are not the only key people in a lifesaving procedure. The team is large, diverse, and inseparable. One of my surgeons modestly spoke about the teamwork, “I’m a glorified plumber; your pharmacist keeps you alive.” I received critical care and compassion from more nurses than I can count. And I’ll always remember and commend the hospital’s janitorial staff who cleaned so thoroughly and cheerfully. None of them, nor I, would succeed without the others.

Transplant is a treatment, not a cure, so my second chance at life is an ongoing adventure with ups and downs and will strain, even frighten, me along the way. Each of these hikes was a heartfelt event for me throughout which I remembered how and by whom I was enabled to cover the distance and enjoy what I could not before.

I hike to honor the gift.

Denise Redeker
Founder & Executive Director
2018 Heart Transplant Recipient