A $25 million gift from the Orland Bethel Family Foundation will enable Pitt to elevate its study of musculoskeletal disorders including osteoporosis, degenerative arthritis, fragility fractures and spinal pathology. Pitt’s school of medicine will make an equivalent co-investment, allotting a total of $50 million to create the Orland Bethel Family Musculoskeletal Research Center (BMRC). Bethel,.
The pain in Orland Bethel’s lower back and hips became excruciating. In 2014, he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis — a narrowing and squeezing of the nerves and spinal cord. The 87-year-old Greensburg resident consulted with six orthopaedic surgeons. They told him they would need to “cut a chunk of