Dennis Monty has walked the walk before, but this time he's the poster boy.
That's how he sees his role as "inspirational honoree" of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's team in the American Heart Association's "Start! Heart Walk." Of the 3,500 walkers expected to participate Saturday in Albany and next Saturday in Saratoga Springs, 50 to 60 from RPI will walk with him.
Monty will have an advantage over some. A clerk in the purchasing department, he is 57 and walking with the heart of a 35-year-old.
It's his third -- counting his original and two transplants. That makes him a rare breed among heart-transplant patients.
Born and raised in Troy, he has worked at RPI for 34 years. He's a jokester, and co-workers give it right back. But the Heart Walk brings out his serious side. When a co-worker, Charlene Rivet, asked whether he'd be RPI's "inspirational honoree," he was quick to reply.
"He just said, 'What do I have to do?'?" says Rivet, who assists her colleague Patti Mugrace in organizing RPI's fund-raising efforts for the Heart Walk. "He's just a down-to-earth, nice person. Despite everything he's been through, he's always positive. He never lets you think anything but good is going to happen."
When Rivet called, Monty says, the decision to help raise money, recruit walkers and allow his story to inspire others was easy.
"Why wouldn't I do it?" he says. "To me, it's the least I can do. I've been so fortunate. I smile every time I go to bed at night and smile every time I wake up in the morning."
Monty lost the heart he was born with when he was 47. An infection apparently caused the valves to fail, he says, and one day at work he suddenly felt terribly nauseated and weak. He ended up at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where surgeons performed his first transplant.
The heart belonged to a man seven years younger, Monty was told. That was the good news. The bad news was that the heart wasn't 100-percent effective.
After completing rehab, Monty's new heart functioned at about 45-percent capacity. He quit playing softball, volleyball and basketball and found a less-strenuous hobby: poker.
He had to give up his job as stock room supervisor in the purchasing department because of dust and fumes. He took his current clerk's job in a clean office.
His heart worked fine for seven years. Then he started getting weak, losing energy and retaining fluid. He lost his appetite and began losing weight.
Going back and forth to doctors and in and out of hospitals for two years, he was on the brink of death. He ended up back at Mass General, where doctors told him he needed another heart.
"And they said, 'We're going to throw in a kidney with that, too,' " Monty says.
All the medications and poor-heart function had damaged his kidney. In June last year, at 56, he received a new kidney and his third heart -- both from a 35-year-old.
This heart is healthier than Monty's second one. He walks regularly, sometimes breaking into a jog, and even walks up and down the stairs to his third-floor apartment in Troy and fourth-floor office in the Rice Building in downtown Troy. This winter, he plans to walk on his treadmill at home.
"I feel like I did before I had any heart trouble at all," he says.
Monty is one in a 100. He is one of only three patients -- out of about 300 -- who have received a second heart transplant at Mass General since it began performing the surgery in 1985, says Coral Haggan, a transplant coordinator there.
CDPHP (his insurance through RPI) and Medicaid paid his bills, he says. Although the total cost of his care was not available, a heart transplant can run $200,000 to $300,000 or more, including follow-up care, says Julie K. Tracy, public relations specialist for CDPHP.
Haggan says that for Monty, things just fell into place for him to receive the second heart. His first heart wore out. He had no other major medical problems. He was young enough to warrant a second heart. A heart was available. And he was a model patient.
"He always comes in with a smile on his face," Haggan says. "He takes his medications on time. He exercises like he should. He follows the rules. Because he was so compliant -- and because he was going to die if he didn't get another heart -- there was no hesitation about giving him a second chance."
Monty says he understands how people might think it's bizarre that he's had three hearts.
"I'm truly amazed by it; I am," he says. "But they make you feel so comfortable with it that you really don't think about that."
He's so appreciative of the care he's received -- so appreciative he's alive -- that he's glad to help the American Heart Association raise money for research and public education, he says. The association's goal is to raise $900,000 from its walks in Albany and Saratoga Springs.
Monty will be walking in Albany, leading his team of RPI colleagues. He's planning on having a grand time, cracking jokes and making everybody feel good.
That'll be easy, he says, because now he's really young at heart.
Tom Keyser can be reached at 454-5448 or by e-mail at tkeyser@timesunion.com.
Start! Heart Walk
There will be two three-mile walks (with cheerleaders, bands, DJs and vendors) to promote walking as a way of improving your health and to raise money for the American Heart Association. Most of the money will fund research and public education.
The Capital Region Start! Heart Walk begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at the W. Averell Harriman State Office Campus in Albany. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.
The North Country Start! Heart Walk beings at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs. Registration begins at 9 a.m.
To register for the walks or to donate money, and for more information, call Meredith Cohn at 869-4046. Also, check these Web sites:
http://www.capitalregion heartwalk.org
http://www.saratogaglens fallsheartwalk.org
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