Catalina trip is matter of heart

Rick Devereux

Rod La Shelle, 68, doesn’t describe himself as particularly athletic,

even though he will attempt to row from Catalina Island to his Balboa

Island home today.

He says he likes to golf but doesn’t consider himself very good at

it. He also likes to play racquetball with his friends and

occasionally goes quail hunting. He said he used to go running, but

fatigue forced him to stop that activity because he was born with an

aortic valve deficiency, the same condition that took the life of

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Darrin at the age of 37.

The aortic valve controls blood flow from the heart’s left

ventricle to the aorta and the rest of the body. It opens when the

ventricle contracts and closes when the ventricle relaxes. In La

Shelle and Darrin’s cases, the valve is smaller than normal, meaning

it has to work harder to push the required amount of blood to the

heart. The overworked valve becomes thicker and the heart can not

keep up with the work load and eventually fails.

“I should be dead,” La Shelle said. “I’m very blessed to be born

when I was born.”

La Shelle has always taken good care of his body by watching what

he eats and taking daily vitamins.

“He never touches butter,” his wife Caroline said. “And he takes

over 100 supplements a day, even though he’s not afraid of a Bombay

Gin martini or a good cigar.”

La Shelle first started rowing when a friend gave him an old boat

about five years ago. He began by rowing in Crystal Cove, then around

Balboa Island, and finally a 12-mile trip to Laguna Beach and back.

Last November he was hunting with friends and got into a friendly

discussion of whether La Shelle could row the 27 miles from Catalina

to his home.

He believed he could.

They didn’t think he could make it.

One reason for the doubt is La Shelle’s heart; not his desire, but

the actual organ. He had open heart surgery to repair the faulty

valve two years ago. La Shelle’s active lifestyle and diet helped

reduce the symptoms associated with aortic valve deficiency, but he

noticed he was getting more fatigued and sometimes had to stop

because of chest pains.

“I just figured I was getting older,” La Shelle said. “I went to a

cardiologist and he said that I could run until I feel pain, but that

I ran the risk of dying unexpectedly. That’s when I went to Dr.

[Douglas] Zusman.”

Dr. Zusman, a cardiovascular surgeon at Hoag Hospital, said La

Shelle had a perfectly healthy heart except for the aortic valve and

replaced it with a bovine pericardial valve in October of 2002.

“A normal heart should pump about 70 [cubic centimeters] of blood

a minute, but before the operation mine was pumping 30 cc’s,” La

Shelle said. “I felt like a brand new man after the surgery.”

La Shelle eased off his running regimen and increased his rowing

training. But problems persisted while rowing.

“I rowed down to Laguna and on the way back I noticed there was a

bee on me,” he said. “I swatted it away and then noticed that there

was a swarm of bees all around me. I put my towel in the water and

started hitting them. There must have been at least 100 bees dead on the bottom of the boat. But I didn’t get stung once. It was amazing.

I’m sure if they would have attacked me I would be dead right now.”

La Shelle, who will turn 69 Aug. 8, also has to deal with

blisters, exposure to the sun and stress to his back while rowing.

His journey today from Avalon to Balboa, which should last from 5

a.m. to around 1 p.m., will also have him crossing the paths of

tankers leaving San Pedro, yet more obstacles to overcome.

“On Sundays the traffic only goes south out of San Pedro,” he

said. “There is a three-mile [section] where the tankers will be.

Those things will throw a 12-foot wake, so I don’t want to be near

that. It’s up to me to anticipate if it’s safe for me to cross or not

because the tankers are so big they wouldn’t be able to stop or

maneuver out of the way. I don’t care if it does slow me down. I’m

not in any race.”

La Shelle will be trailed by a friend in a motor boat in case he

needs assistance. If he cannot complete the trek, La Shelle said he

would try gain next year at the same time because the best water

conditions occur around this time of year.

La Shelle, a former captain in the army, is trying to raise

awareness for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, which provides

educational scholarships to the children of military personnel who

have died in combat. For more information, call 800-329-5454.