Koji Duncan --- Adaptive Technology

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Finding new ways after a knee injury

Apr 2, 2020 | 11:16 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB. — When you’re young, you think you’re invincible and will always be healthy. You don’t think about getting old or the day you’ll have to give up your favorite sport, due to injury or fear of injury.

Unfortunately, injuries can happen at any point in your life and it’s what you do next that helps reshape your path to new adventures.

Koji Duncan is no stranger to knee injuries. Being very active in his youth, he participated in a wide variety of high school and extra-curricular sports. He especially loved volleyball and skiing.

Duncan was involved in freestyle skiing, competing across Canada for many years. He thought that if he were to injure his knee, it would have been when he was skiing, as skiing moguls and jumping is very hard on the body, particularly the knees. He made it through high school unscathed and decided to go to University.

When Duncan returned home during Easter of the following spring, he and some friends went dirt biking. He ended up crashing, severely injuring his right knee.

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“I catwalked my dirt bike backwards and landed with my right knee tucked underneath me. It was a seemingly harmless fall and at the time I didn’t realize my knee was injured. But when I went to stand up, my knee buckled sideways.”

“At 18 years old, I didn’t fully grasp the extent of how bad my injury was. I ended up having surgery the following morning as I had ruptured my patellar tendon. But it wasn’t until the following year that more injuries were discovered.”

Duncan’s knee continued to be very unstable and painful, so he had an MRI and consulted with a surgeon. It was then discovered that he had completely torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), lateral collateral ligament (LCL), and his meniscus.

“This resulted in a second surgery, which required the surgeon to take a graft from my patellar tendon and use it to repair my ACL. My LCL was overlapped and stitched as it had stretched considerably, and the loose pieces of meniscus were cleaned up.”

“Over the years, I’ve had a total of four surgeries, with the last two being performed on the LCL as the previous repairs were not successful.”

“Although, I can still ski, I can’t ski as long or as hard as I used to. I’ve had to completely give up volleyball and other sports that require a lot of jumping,” says Duncan, “I tried to play volleyball again but ended up on the sidelines with a bag of ice within minutes”.

“I’ve been told by my surgeons that I will require a knee replacement much sooner than the average person, as I’m now more prone to developing osteoarthritis from the injury and subsequent surgeries. However, I’m determined to still participate in as many activities as possible with the help of knee bracing.”

“At times, I need to wear the brace daily and while at work but for the most part I only need it for more strenuous activities such as long-distance walking and sports.”

Duncan has had several knee braces over the past 15 years and is Adaptive Technologies Guinea Pig for trying out all the new stabilizing knee braces.

Having had severe knee injuries himself, Duncan can relate to others who are suffering from knee injuries. It’s given him a better understanding of which knee braces will work in certain situations and he understands the difficulties with having to wear a knee brace every day.

“No one wants to have to wear a knee brace, but they do work and can get you back to a more active, pain free lifestyle” says Duncan, “If you’re having issues with your knee, see if knee bracing will work for you – you never know how much pain is holding you back until it’s gone.”