GRANT, MI – Trent Denhof hiked the Appalachian Trail, served as a whitewater raft instructor at Yellowstone National Park, had all his money stolen in San Diego and broke the heart of his parents – all within a year of a heart attack at age 21.

The former cross country standout at Grant High School turned a rare heart condition into his dream life as an adventurer that he continues today, even as his life depends on a device implanted in his chest.

"I've never had so much fun, been so scared and felt so alive," he said.



Denhof, now 25, lives with a constant reminder that he has Brugada syndrome, an electrical imbalance that can send him into cardiac arrest. He has a device, known as an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), implanted in his chest. The device, about the size of a television remote, continuously monitors his heart and if it detects an irregularity, it will defibrillate, or send a faint shock to get his heart beating normally again.

The ICD also serves as a reminder to him that every day is precious. There is no cure for Brugada syndrome. Denhof said the device has kicked in and saved him eight times since February 2011.

“I would say that every day, and every decision I make, is based off of the fact that, you know, just in case I die tomorrow, what should I do today?” he said.

Within days of his heart attack outside Grand Rapids, Denhof decided that, if he survived, it would be on his terms. What transpired the following year brought him closer to nature, changed his life and prompted him to write a 254-page, self-published book entitled "One Year."

“Trent has always been one of those people who fly by the seat of their pants,” said Andrew Trygstad, a friend since middle school. “But since he had his heart attack, he has been living every day like it is his last day.

“Trent has always been known as kind of crazy and adventurous, but what he has done takes it to the whole next level, I guess.”

HEART ATTACK

Denhof always knew there was something odd about his heart – he felt like he had an irregular heartbeat in high school but nothing was ever found. It was hard to imagine there was anything wrong given his cross country prowess. He finished 10th in the state in Division 3 as a senior in 2006.

He attended Manchester College in Indiana, then transferred to Lake Superior State before his junior year when he became more interested in exploring the outdoors than running in it.

Denhof credits Trygstad with saving his life. The two were visiting a friend in Grand Rapids, when, after going for a run in the cold, Denhof collapsed on the couch and passed out. Trygstad applied CPR.

Denhof eventually landed at Metro Health Hospital in Wyoming where he learned his heart was defective.

“To me, that was the craziest thing,” Denhof said. “I mean, I had episodes and knew there was something. But I was a runner, didn’t drink and I always considered myself in great shape.”

Instead, he underwent surgery to have the ICD implanted that saved his life, but also changed it as well. The device could save his life, and Denhof said he was encouraged to avoid heavy exertion. He decided otherwise.

“Once I got a handle on everything, all I could think about was getting out of there, getting back in the woods, being outside,” said Denhof, who worked the previous summer as a seasonal guide at Yellowstone National Park.

AFTER SURGERY COMES ADVENTURE

What happened became the basis of his book as Denhof devised a plan to hike the Appalachian Trail. With his parents in Florida, he left the house just three weeks after being discharged, leaving only a note and his cell phone on the kitchen table.

Joined by his year-old pit bull mix “Abu,” Denhof caught a ride with a friend to Tennessee and began his hike in the Smoky Mountains.

“It was stupid and it was uplifting,” Denhof said. “I just felt I had to get out and go … It wasn’t until later I realized what I put my parents through.”

He found out the hard way. After about one month and 200 miles of hiking, he was out of food, money and energy. He called his parents in search of a bus ticket home. They refused.

“Now it really hit me, I’m alone,” Denhof wrote in his book. “My mother with all her love tells me she won’t and can’t do this for me. I have to grow up, I got myself into this, and she raised someone that can get out of it. And with that, she hangs up. I am stuck here to die.”

It was a decision the parents agonized over.

“I know that sounds like we were cold, and that isn’t the case,” said his father, Chuck Denhof, who runs a 40-acre family farm in Grant. “He just left us without warning after everything had happened and we all had gone through. And we had told him long before - we had signed for a lot of his loans and different things in life and he kind of screwed us over, more or less.

“So we said no, no more money. He got himself into that situation and, at that age, he was going to have to get himself out of it.”

THE AWAKENING

For Trent Denhof, it was an awakening.

“I was a textbook teenager, and caused my parents a lot of stress,” said Denhof, the second oldest of four children. “I also was always in need of money, and I think leaving so selfishly without contact was enough to finally have my parents say enough.”

He said he grew up, but he also didn’t go home. Instead, Denhof embarked on an amazing long-year journey. He didn’t know how long he was going to live, so he was determined to live it to the fullest.

Among his adventures: He worked to create a biodiesel company with an airline pilot with six dogs in Ducktown, Tenn.; sought work in oil fields in North Dakota; ran whitewater rafting trips near the Tetons; was a ski bum in Colorado and met Hollywood celebrities in San Diego.

He even came home for a spell after seven months.

“We were all happy, but it was this uncomfortable elephant in the room,” Denhof said. “I was too stubborn to say I was sorry for how I acted as a teen, and my parents were just happy to have me home. I was out of money though, and my parents, still very poor, told me I had to get a job.”

He found one, but it was in Williston, N.D., where he hoped to be part of an oil drilling boon. Because of his heart, he was turned down and instead worked at a restaurant.

THE ONE-YEAR MARK AND BEYOND

It was a dramatic conclusion to his year-long journey, just not how he expected. After a night of partying in San Diego with two friends, he awoke to find that one of them had stolen all his money – close to $2,000. It put an end to their plans to travel the next day to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Instead, a day later he ended up in the hospital with appendicitis. He was fortunate; his appendix could have burst while hiking in Mexico.



Once he healed, he began to make plans to return to the Tetons.

HARD TO BELIEVE?

“I know some of it is just nuts to believe, but if it would happen to anyone, it would happen to Trent,” said Trystad, who now lives in Boston and visited Denhof in the Tetons in 2013. “I guess there’s no way of knowing everything that he says he did in his book. I know for a fact on some of it, and, if you know him, you know none of it is surprising for him, either.”

In the time that followed the one-year anniversary, Denhof returned as a summer guide at Yellowstone, then took six months to write his book. He currently works as a bartender in Bellingham, Wash., and, with his newfound girlfriend, he plans to travel to Argentina this winter to hike.

When asked to reflect on what has happened and what he has been through, Denhof is both proud and anguished and admits there is a selfishness that nags at him. Not that he would change what happened, given his condition.

I never would have thought I would have ever climb the highest mountains in Yellowstone, fly fish alongside feeding grizzly bears, hopped a train to the sunset, or ever actually have a story like the ones I've always read and dreamed about,” he said. “ My heart attack was the best thing to every happen to me.”

As for his heart, Denhof doesn’t know how many times it can endure the kick starts from his ICD, so he considers each adventure potentially his last.

RELATIONSHIP HEALS WITH PARENTS

Also, with age, Denhof has grown closer to his parents, even though they sometimes don’t hear from him for weeks. But that, they said, is OK.

“Trent is going to do what Trent wants to do,” said his father. “He always has been that way. He has matured since then, but he still loves being out in nature and I know part of it is (his heart condition) weighs on his mind a lot.”

Chuck Denhof didn’t know about most of his son’s adventures, nor the angst he went through, until he and his wife read the book.

“There were a lot of things with Trent that made us angry, but we didn’t know what he was going through emotionally, I guess,” said his father.

Both of them got to see firsthand how his son’s life has changed last winter when he came home to Grant for a visit. It didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

“We went out to all the local places where his friends hang out and everyone was saying, ‘Oh, man, Trent, Trent, I want your life.’ And I was surprised. It upset him so much. He wanted to leave.

“All Trent kept saying was, ‘You think I got such a great life? I got this box in my chest and I don’t know what will happen next!’ You guys got the great life. You just don’t do anything with it.”

Pete Wallner covers sports for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at pwallner@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.