Eric Borstein is known as “The Walking Man,” and for good reason. He has Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, a rare incurable disease that causes high blood pressure in the lungs. According to the American Lung Association, the cause of the progressive disorder is “usually unknown,” and only 500 to 1,000 people are diagnosed each year in the U.S. After collapsing at his home from massive right heart failure, Borstein was taken to a hospital where he remained in the intensive care unit for 16 days, and as he put it bluntly, “[The doctors] didn’t think I was going to leave.” 

He was eventually discharged and subsequently put on what he called “very difficult” medications with side effects he found could be mitigated by walking. Thus, “The Walking Man” was born. 

Shot by KTLA photojournalist Phil Ige on Sept. 22, 2024.

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