Michael T. Hannan of Salt Lake City believes too many people with heart problems hold back on their physical effort. He would know. A grounded commercial airline pilot, he's excelled at hiking in recent years, despite requiring a defibrillator for his heart — and hereached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro last month to make his point.
"Work your way through it," he advised those with similar medical problems. "The sky's the limit."
Hannan, now 59, was flying high in 2000, recently promoted to captain with Delta Airlines after having been a co-pilot for many years. Then, a heart problem grounded him. He collapsed while running on two different occasions because of heart irregularities despite being thin and having been a runner since 1979.
After these "head rush" experiences, as he describes them, he went to a cardiologist and eventually got fitted with a defibrillator. The device, the size of a bar of soap, can pace a heartbeat or shock it back to regularity if needed.
The Federal Aviation Administration quickly informed him that he could never be a pilot again, even a co-pilot, with such an implanted device.
"I was heartbroken," he said. After 31 years of commercial flying, he found his career at a sudden stop. He gradually returned to an otherwise normal lifestyle. After teaching German for a while, he taught in Long Beach, Calif., at a flight simulator school, and he now coordinates the new flight simulator program at Westminster College.
He began hiking very aggressively — pushing it — to prove to the FAA that he was not "a dangerous person" healthwise. He's never had any heart episodes since. After a son climbed Kilimanjaro, he decided he should try it as well.
At 19,340 feet above sea level in Tanzania, Kilimanjaro is Africa's tallest summit and thus one of the high points of the seven continents.
Hannan had his doctor's blessing for the climb and stressed that people should always follow medical advice.
At age 60 — and he's less than a month away now — the FAA makes pilots retire anyway, so being a pilot for him is a moot point. However, he's pondering sending the FAA a photo of himself on Kilimanjaro in hopes that other pilots in his situation will have some leeway in keeping their jobs, at least as co-pilots.
His climbing plans for Kilimanjaro got a huge setback in January when his arranged outfitting company backed off and refused him, based on his so-called heart problems. That company's doctor and attorney felt he was too much a risk to hike to the summit.
"I was pretty devastated," he said. But he found a new group a few days later willing to overlook his medical history, and it ended up being $800 less expensive, too.
He chose not to take the so-called "Coca-Cola" trail — the easiest and most popular — to Kilimanjaro's peak but did portions of the Machame, Barranco, Barafu and Mweka routes to see more of the mountain.
His total route was 62 miles of hiking in six days. (The Coca-Cola trail is just over 20 miles long round trip). He was the oldest in his group but the only one who didn't suffer from altitude sickness.
Hikers attain the summit before daybreak to avoid the clouds that usually enshroud the peak.
"It was so cold," he said of the summit. "It's hard to believe you are 3 degrees below the equator."
Besides being with some German hikers, with whom he could converse, he enjoyed the climate, which ascends from tropical and rain forests to snow on top.
An estimated 11,000 people climb the mountain each year.
"I felt great," he said. "The mystique of being in Africa. It was a time of reflection."
Hannan now has his sights set on climbing Utah's Kings Peak. He's also considering doing a glacial route up Washington's Mount Rainier. An avid skier, snowshoer and body surfer too, "I just do whatever I want to do (physically)," he said.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com