Kevin Rhinehart —Always Pushing His Limits By Ma‘ata Tukuafu
Life for Kevin Rhinehart changed drastically
KeOlaMagazine.com | September-October 2021
when he suffered a life-threatening stroke in January 2012 at the age of 53. At the time, his career as a successful psychotherapist was flourishing and he performed regularly as a musician. “The stroke happened, and it was not anybody’s fault,” says Kevin. “I found out later I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but like many of us, we don’t know.” Kevin was born in Korea and was adopted at six months old. He grew up in the suburbs of Washington state, and spent part of his eighth-grade year enrolled in a high school in Honolulu. Kevin and his wife, Laurie, moved to Kona in 2015 and lived here for two years. He said he felt so at home among the residents. They needed to move to Idaho after that, and visited their “heart home” in Kona as often as possible, while dreaming of their move back.
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Stroke to Running in Three Years Shortly after his stroke occurred, Kevin had to be in a wheelchair. He had difficulty swallowing, he couldn’t speak, and the entire right side of his body was affected. This meant that the left side of his brain was the side that had the stroke. He had to quit his job and stop playing music. “It took some getting used to,” Kevin says. “I still play around on my electric bass, but the right hand and fingers are not cooperative. They’re essentially pretty useless. I have foot rot as a result too, but despite the negatives, it [the stroke] has given me a new lease on life.” In 2012, shortly after the stroke occurred, he spent a lot of time doing occupational, physical, and speech therapy which was a big help in his recovery. Later that year his health insurance ran out, so he had to improvise, finding
ways to physically stay in shape and keep his body strong. In 2015, when he and his wife moved to Kona, his adult daughter visited them. “I don’t know whose idea it was to race up the hill about 20 yards, but I beat her, and I didn’t know I could even run,” Kevin says with a laugh. “I wasn’t fast and maybe she let me win, but I didn’t do anything with it. Later that year I was a volunteer at a water station for the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, and by the end of it, I decided to begin training for the next triathlon.” Kevin says he remembered his run with his daughter and doesn’t know if it was an act of inspiration or craziness, but he decided to begin training for the triathlon early the next year. Many medical professionals either heavily discounted their rates or trained him for free. He says that both his adult children, his wife, and his friends were very supportive of him. “A lot of people say that their friends abandoned them after they had a stroke, but I didn’t experience that. Maybe my friendships have changed, but change is normal anyway. And my friends have been a big help, a lot of people showed me love,” Kevin says. He also attributes much of his healing and working through the aftereffects of stroke to his faith in God. “Early on with my stroke, I said, ‘Well, God, you are going to have to love me through this, because win, lose, or draw, that’s all I got,’” says Kevin. Before beginning his triathlon training, Kevin volunteered for a homeless organization and tried to start a stroke survivors’ group in Kona, but he says it didn’t go very far. His purpose really began that October when he made up Kevin at the World Championship Ironman start/ finish. photo courtesy of Crystal Richard, BigIslandNow.com
