HOME / NEWS & MEDIA / MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE – APRIL 21, 2008

DR. HEATHER ROSS – AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH
Maclean's Magazine – April 21, 2008

When you think of mountain climbers you think of healthy, robust individuals, and Dr. Heather Ross, who heads the Transplant Unit at Toronto Hospital, would not convince you otherwise. In 2006 she came within 200 vertical metres of the summit of the Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak, climbing with Dale Shippam, 55, a firefighter who once had a heart transplant. Now Ross has her sights set on Mera Peak in Nepal, taking along Shippam as well as David White, who has a transplanted kidney. Ross hopes to demonstrate that not only can post-transplant patients live active lives, but they can become superbly fit. There is also ground-breaking research to be done. Working with Dr. Michel White of the Montreal Heart Institute, Ross and the team will investigate transplant recipients' biochemical response to high altitude and what role hypoxia (low blood-oxygen levels) plays. For transplant recipients, there ain't no mountain high enough.

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