The Direct Anterior Approach to Hip Reconstruction

In Memoriam

grandfather Luda Bērziņš in Jūrmala, Latvia; established the “Keggi Velo,” a bike race in memory of his father; and was the founder of the Luda Bērziņš Prize. Keggi was the first surgeon to perform total hip arthroplasty using the minimally invasive anterior approach in the 1970s and published his early experi ences and case series for the scientific community. He is widely considered to be the pioneer, innovator, and advocate for the anterior approach in the United States. In 2016, Dr. Keggi collaborated with Drs. Sonny Bal and Lee E. Rubin to publish The Direct Anterior Approach to Hip Reconstruction . He was the recipient of multiple national and interna tional awards and four honorary doctorates. These have included the Latvian Order of the Three Stars in 1993, the V Class Order of the Estonian Red Cross in 1999, the Distinguished Service Medal of the Latvian Physicians Association (the second ever awarded) in 2009, and the Silver Medal of Medical Dignity and Service to Russian Medicine in 2012. He received the George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award from Yale University in 2005. In 1994, the Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine and the Latvian Academy of the Sciences awarded him the Pauls Stradiņš Prize. Keggi is an Honorary Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (1990) and the Russian Academy of Sciences (1993), and holds honorary degrees from the Riga Stradiņš University (1997) and the University of Latvia (2009). He also received the 2019 Humanitarian Service Award from the Connecticut Orthopaedic Society. He is one of only two non-Russians inducted into the Russian Academy of Sciences for his prowess in medi cine. Keggi spoke six languages fluently, was captain of the Yale fencing team as an undergraduate, and later ran six marathons, competed in master’s rowing events, and was a passionate golfer. Over the course of his life, he nobly served many people and institutions. His work in a MASH unit in Vietnam, numerous contributions to the field of medicine in the United States and his native Latvia, and devotion to veterans were documented in his self-published 2022 memoir, My Century: A Memoir of

Kristaps Juris Keggi, MD

Kristaps Juris Keggi, MD, (1934 2023) was Professor Emeritus at the Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation. On July 4, 2023, he passed away peacefully and unex pectedly in his home at age 88. His extraordinary life began in Riga, Latvia on August 9, 1934, when he was born in the family

of surgeon Jānis and Ruta Kegi as the second of four brothers. His grandfather was folklorist, teacher, and pastor Ludis Bērziņš (1870-1965). During World War II, he fled with his family to Germany in 1944 then to the United States in 1949. He studied medicine at Yale University (1951-1959) and completed his surgical internship at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York fol lowed by Residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1965. From 1965 to 1966, he partic ipated in the Vietnam War as a military surgeon, and was stationed with the 173rd Airborne as Chief of Surgery at the 3rd Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Biên Hòa, Vietnam. In 1966, he rejoined the Yale University faculty as an assistant professor. Dr. Keggi was in clinical practice from 1966 through 2016, performing orthopaedic surgery at both St. Mary’s Hospital (1969-1989) and Waterbury Hospital (1969 2018). He served as the director of Waterbury Hospital’s Orthopaedic Center for Joint Reconstruction and as a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale School of Medicine during that time. In 1989, Dr. Keggi became a Clinical Professor of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation at Yale University, was elected full professor in the Department at Yale in 2008, was named Elihu Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation in 2010, and retired from clinical practice to become a Professor Emeritus on December 31, 2016. Since 1987, he regularly visited Latvia, where he per formed demonstration operations, conducted seminars, and delivered numerous lectures both in Latvia and the surrounding Baltic Nations. In 1988, he founded the nonprofit Keggi Orthopaedic Foundation to allow for formal academic exchanges between the United States and the USSR. The organization provided fellowships in advanced orthopaedic surgery at both the Yale School of Medicine and Waterbury Hospital for more than 300 surgeons from the Baltic nations, Russia, and Vietnam. In 1990, he founded the memorial museum of his

War, Peace, and Pioneering in the Operating Room . His life as husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfa ther were also extraordinary. The last few weeks of his life were filled with family activities and events. He attended the college graduation of his twin grandsons, Alexander and Christopher Ford from Fairfield University and the wedding of his granddaughter Julia Hunter in New Orleans. Although no longer able to play golf, he Copyright © Wolters Kluwer, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of the content is prohibited. 2024

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