Florida man hikes 2200-mile Appalachian Trail after heart transplant

All right, a 65-year-old heart transplant recipient decided to take a brand new test on the ticker, okay? Terry Markham spent the last year hiking the Appalachian Trail. His goal is to make the 2,200-mile journey all the way to Maine. Wearing a lucky charm from his heart donor, he started his summit in Georgia. So far, he's gone 300 miles all on foot. And he joins us live in studio to talk about it. We have Terry Markham here and his physician, Dr. Ahmad Zeeshan from Advent Health Transplant Institute. Gentlemen, good to see you. Thanks for coming in. Good to see you. Amazing. All right, so let's start from the beginning. What happened with the heart there? I had my third bout with congestive heart failure. It got to the point where I was out of breath getting up from a recliner going to a refrigerator. That was like six and a half years ago. And I look back from that to where I am now. I thank this guy for that. Wow. It truly is amazing. And before we get over to the doctor, Terry, I want you to talk about what it was like to go through that procedure and what maybe your fears were about what life would be like after having a transplant. My biggest concern was that once I had a transplant, my life would be, I could Be alive and sustain myself, and that was it. And just live. Never once envisioned I'd be able to do some of the things I'm able to do now. Now, This hiking thing, for whatever reason, back in August of last year, I decided to take a walk. And kind of like the Tom Hanks thing, I just kept on going. I wanted to go farther and farther until I became obsessed with doing this Appalachian Trail and getting the gear for it and doing that. I just love being outdoors, it's just a new passion in my life, but the ironic thing is that I couldn't picture myself doing this seven years ago. Wow. You know, Doc, heart transplants have come so far. I mean, maybe this wasn't in the cards seven or eight years ago. What do you see now with heart transplants that makes it so much easier for somebody like this to stay so active? Yes, I would say that the heart transplant has become more sort of a common thing than it used to be say 10, 20, 30 years ago and there are advances in technology that allows us to use more hearts than ever before and though still there is a lot of need and every single heart transplant provides a lifelong transformation for the recipient and a hope for the rest of them, the rest of the folks who need it, that there is a possibility of That is incredible, even after being so sick with heart disease, and I think that's just incredible. Absolutely. What do you think of what he's accomplished? I mean, it's amazing. It's amazing. I think that he is our star patient, and Teddy has done so, so well, and we are so proud of him. So let's talk about the walk here very quickly. So you've gone 300 miles already? I have. Okay, so you're going to go the whole way. Tell us about how you're going through this. Well, I'm going to pick up where I left off on Hurricane Road, continue north. I plan on taking four to five months to get to Mount Katahdin. Then I'm going to turn around and go south on the 300 I already did. The reason is because in order to get credited for a through hike, you have to do all 2,200 miles in 365 days. So I'm going to go back and do that again. For people who are not familiar with the Appalachian Trail and what this entails, how long is this total and what made you stop at the 300 mile mark? The reason I stopped at 300 miles is I had problems with my feet. It was just so painful to go downhill. Going uphill was not a problem. Going straight was not a problem. There was not a lot of that on the Appalachian Trail though. But going downhill, it would take me probably an hour to go a mile downhill. I'd take 20 feet and stop. And I realized all the things that I've overcome, and you just overcome all kinds of things on the Appalachian Trail, I knew that I was not going to be able to overcome that without some medical assistance. So I've been treated for that. I'm getting better. In fact, I had treatment this morning. But, so that gives me the confidence to be able to go back in March and complete it. Okay, doc, just a couple seconds left. What should people know about heart transplants now that maybe we didn't know before? What's the message for people who might need this? I think that heart transplant is safe. It's available right here in Orlando in one of the best programs in the United States. And if they need it, we are here for them. It's awesome. It's beautiful. Good stuff. Congratulations. Great story. Okay, so March is when you're going to hit the trail again. I plan through March. All right. Okay. All right. Keep us posted, Terry. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Schmuck. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Thank you. Take Amy with you. All right. I would go. I love hiking. I know you do. All right. We'll hike over to our next segment. It's 1043. We'll be right back. Thanks, guys.