Mike Pont, an 80-year-old retired teacher in Great Britain, who boasts not only two artificial knees but also a new hip joint, did a charity paragliding jump—after losing an eye!
Bad News: Jumper Break Legs, Good News: Implants Survive
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Before taking off he wrote to his friends, “As you may know I turned 80 a few months ago and not content with permanently marking myself with my first tattoo, I thought I’d risk life and limb by paragliding off from the Sussex Downs. Let’s see if my knee and hip replacements can take it.”
What happened? Mike’s implants survived but he broke both legs. Mike had performed the 165 meter jump to raise money for Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare.
After the accident, Pont said he was “really pleased” he managed to complete the challenge. He said that he had decided to take on the fundraiser to confront his fear of heights.
Mike had written on his online fundraising page: “I have taken a break from my partial sanity to complete a paragliding jump.” He added that he was “really pleased” he managed to complete the challenge. He had made the jump dressed as a Spitfire pilot in memory of a pilot who had died jumping from his plane.
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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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