printable versionDozens to participate in 5K race against pulmonary hypertension
Dennis Hernandez, a 54-year-old former tow-truck driver, is ready to enter the fourth annual Race Against Pulmonary Hypertension at Stanford, a 5K run and walk scheduled for Sunday.
Never mind that Hernandez is also a patient. His pulmonary hypertension—high blood pressure in the lungs—keeps much of the oxygen he breathes from making it into his blood. More than half a million Americans live with the life-threatening disease, which causes fatigue, severe shortness of breath and fainting.
Hernandez will be one of a dozen or so patients in a crowd of 200 racers, said Kristine Kerivan, administrative director at Stanford’s Vera Moulton Wall Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease, which organizes the race. The race begins at 9 a.m. at the athletic stadium.
Participants or volunteers can call (800) 640-9255 for more information. The entry fee is $30. Proceeds benefit the Ewing Family Fund for Pulmonary Hypertension Research at Stanford and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.
For Hernandez, it’ll be the third year he’s joined in the race, which began in 2001. He wishes he could have done it in the first year, but he was so ill he couldn’t walk across his front room.
In his first race in 2002, he had just started treatment of his condition two months earlier with the drug Flolan that has to be continuously pumped into his chest. He carried a Walkman-sized pump with him as he completed the course and finished in about two and a half hours. “Pretty much everyone else had left,” he said.
Last year he shaved about an hour off his time. This Sunday, he’s planning to bring 20 family members spanning four generations, many of whom will accompany him as he seeks to beat his record.