Attorney General Mark Shurtleff gets new knee, plans to return to work next week

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s recent damage to his artificial knee turned out to be worse than expected.

Shurtleff said Wednesday after surgery that doctors ended up having to replace the knee, which popped backwards when he slipped on a rainy night last weekend while taking his wife to a movie.

“I don’t do things partway,” Shurtleff said. “My artificial knee was destroyed. The good news is, I’m sporting a brand new, state-of-the-art knee that will last me for 40 years.”

The attorney general said he expects to be walking a bit on Wednesday. He said he’s been told he can go home on Saturday and plans to be back in the office next week.

He first hurt his knee in the late 1980s while playing basketball. It was replaced after his first campaign for attorney general, in 2000.

The injury is unrelated to a serious motorcycle accident several years ago. Shurtleff has also undergone chemotherapy for Stage 3 colon cancer and was deemed cancer free last summer.

— Lisa Riley Roche

Twitter: dnewspolitics