THE BLOOD INJECTIONS THAT MIGHT TRANSFORM ORTHOPEDIC (The New Yorker)
Chris Waddell has been an élite athlete for more than two decades. He has won twelve medals in downhill skiing, including five golds, in four Paralympic Games events; he was a world-record-holding wheelchair track sprinter; and, in 2009, he became the first paraplegic to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, using his arms to power a customized four-wheeled cycle. Even at forty-five, Waddell, who was paralyzed in a college skiing accident, has a muscular, sharply defined upper body, the product of thousands of hours of training.
But all this exercise has taken a toll. Several years ago, Waddell’s shoulders began to ache constantly. Last year, he tore a rotator cuff while weightlifting, and began having trouble lifting himself into and out of his wheelchair. “I had no control,” he said. “When I was getting off a couch, I had to marshal all of my strength.”
Waddell, who lives in Park City, Utah, went through a range of treatments. “I tried a lot of rehab, I did a lot of exercises, I had a cortisone injection,” he said. “I wasn’t making any progress.” Several orthopedists told him he would have to accept being in pain for the res...
