CLEVELAND — Stuart O. Smith Jr. has been hiking since he was 13 years old.
For the past 11 years, he’s been section-hiking the Appalachian Trail.
“After I graduated from college, I actually hiked the entire trail,” Smith said.
But symptoms in the Fall of 2022 stopped him in his tracks.
He was having shortness of breath and assumed it was due to stress.
“It was very easy for me just to dismiss it. I didn’t. Literally the next day, an echocardiogram came back saying ‘your heart’s not right,’” he said.
Smith was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Dr. Eiran Gorodeski is a cardiologist with University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute and is Smith’s doctor.
“Every once in a while, you hear a scary story of basketball player or a football player that drops dead on the field,” Gorodeski said. “One of the most common reasons that happens to these young people who are athletes is undiagnosed hypertophic cardiomyopathy.”
HCM is a condition where the heart muscle is thickened and, in more extreme states of disease, it can be harder for the heart to pump blood.
Gorodeski said the condition is the most common inherited disease of the heart. He said one in 500 people may have HCM. Although the condition can be treated with medication, some patients require surgery.
“They actually remove the portion of the thickened heart that leads to blockage of blood flood out of ventricle to the aorta,” Gorodeski said.
Smith underwent that procedure.
Just two days after being discharged, he was back on the trails.
“After being in hospital for a week, I actually was able to hike a mile,” Smith said.
Five months after open heart surgery, Smith hiked 50 miles on the Appalachian Trail and crossed Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts.
Smith said he loves the discovery of being on a trail.
“You look at your maps, you plan our your trip, you plan where you’re going to get your food, approximately where you might sleep at night, but the plans change,” Smith said.
Correction: The previous version of this story misspelled Dr. Eiran Gorodeski's name. This error has been corrected. (Feb. 12, 2024)