Dr. Jill Neff's awesome adventure

CHILLICOTHE — For most people, a pleasant walk through the countryside is enough to relax mind and body. For Dr. Jill Neff, however, it’s climbing Kilimanjaro, which she conquered in February.

At 19,336 feet, snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is Africa's highest peak and the world's tallest walkable mountain.

But what a walk! Dr. Neff, a pediatrician at the Adena Medical Group – Jackson, traveled through five different climatic zones as she ascended the mountain and reached the summit. And on the way back, she broke her leg.

But it was a small price to pay for an extraordinary seven-day adventure, she said. A crazy adventure, you might ask? “No way,” Dr. Neff said.

“I like to hike and I like to camp.” And she loves doing both in strange and exotic places. Her past travels include jaunts in Argentina, Bolivia, British Isles, Chile, France, Greece and Peru.

During this year’s hike in Africa, she was part of a group of adventurers, which included a handful of physicians.

The group encountered a myriad of weather changes, including rain storms and sleet, as well as heavy winds, thunder and lightning. Elevation sickness also was a potential problem, she explained.

“The pressure is so much different. You go much, much slower and breathe much, much faster.”

Because she was well prepared for the climb, thanks to the help of the Adena Rehab and Wellness Center, and Adena Sports Medicine Team, the climb went pretty much without a hitch, until coming back.

“I slipped on some rocks and broke my left leg.” It wasn’t until later that she learned she had broken the ends of both leg bones, tore the ligaments between the two leg bones and displaced an ankle bone between them.

Because walking down the mountain was impossible for her, she was literally carried, in piggyback fashion, on the back of porters who accompanied the group. 

“Seven different people traded me off,” she said, until finally a stretcher became available at a downhill camp. Even then, it was challenging for porters handling the stretcher to traverse the mountain trail.

“They had to lift me, slide me and perch me,” Dr. Neff said.

Eventually, she was evacuated by a medical helicopter ending her adventure and a few days of safari that were scheduled to follow after the climb.

Although not the ending she had hoped for, she already is planning on another climb in Argentina in 2012.

Because her office is strewn with photographs from around the world, her patients are well-versed on her travels, and rally behind her adventures.

“People know I’m a real person and doing real things,” she said. “And they like that.”