Greg Paul, a 61-year-old mountain climber from Alpine, Utah, with two total knee replacements, made it to the summit of Mount Everest on May 13. He was a member of the group of climbers who were the first to reach the summit since May 2013. He is also the first known climber of Everest to have accomplished that feat with two artificial knees.
Climber With Two Knee Replacements Summits Everest
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A sponsor of the climb is Ortho Development Corporation which is the manufacturer of Paul’s knee implants. Brent Bartholomew, president of Ortho Development said, “Our company vision is to help people do what they want by restoring mobility, Helping Greg reach his goal of summiting Everest is symbolic of what can happen in the life of every person out there that can no longer do what they love because of joint pain. We are proud to have designed and manufactured the knee replacement implants right here in Draper, Utah, that helped a fellow Utahan reach the top of the world.”
Ortho Development Corporation was founded in Draper, Utah in 1994. The company is privately held and manufactures devices for knee and hip replacement, trauma fracture repair, and spine treatment. Its majority owner is Japan Medical Dynamic Marketing, Inc.
This was Paul’s third attempt to climb Everest. The first was in 2012. That climb was called off by guides because of extreme weather conditions on the mountain. The second ended two years later when Paul was at the Everest base camp when a powerful earthquake struck causing an avalanche that claimed the lives of 16 people.
Paul was undeterred. “I wanted to finish what I started in 2012, ” he said. “I didn’t want to have that feeling of never knowing whether I could have made it to the top of Everest.” Paul had his first total knee replacement in 2008 and he second in 2012 which gave him a bilateral knee replacement.
With Ortho Development’s Balanced Knee System in both of his knees, Paul was confident about his Everest summit attempt. “Worrying about something like your knees is not what you want to be doing, ” he said.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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