Chapter 01 · The emergency years
Teenage EMT in 1995. Lifeguard, structure-fire entry in California, then north to the North Slope Borough Fire Department in Alaska: fixed-wing medevac out of the most unforgiving conditions on earth, where pilots carried sidearms because polar bears patrolled the runways. Airway emergencies in minus-forty crosswinds, neonatal resuscitations at altitude, ventilators aboard a six-seat plane in a katabatic storm. Paramedic, flight medic, fire captain, search and rescue.
Chapter 02 · Everest
He summited. It taught him what the body does at the edge, and what gets it back.
Chapter 03 · The Arctic
Four men. One rowboat. A thousand miles of frozen ocean between Inuvik, Canada and Point Hope, Alaska. Forty-one days through blizzards, ice floes and fog. He was the team's chief medical officer. Guinness called it a world record. Outside called it insane. He called it mostly cold.
Chapter 04 · Adventure philanthropy
A decade on the board of Heart Ventures, a 501(c)(3). Healthcare development in Honduras, Fiji, Tanzania, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and the United States. Post-quake relief in Haiti. The Siloé Clinic in Mexico. Training first responders across the Alaskan bush. A bicycle across the United States to fund nonprofits. A paddle from Oahu to Kauai for autism awareness. Thirty thousand patient contact hours. Twenty thousand volunteer hours.
Chapter 05 · Medicine, properly
PA-C in 2018. MD in 2025, cum laude, with research and scholarly distinction. No skipped steps.
Chapter 06 · The patient
Myocarditis, then brain fog, then Guillain-Barré, the AMAN and Miller Fisher variants, an autoimmune attack on his own nervous system. Ninety percent paralyzed. He spent a year using the tools he had prescribed to others: peptides, hyperbaric oxygen, plasmapheresis, cell therapy, and the fundamentals, to recover. He is the research.
After thirty years of pulling people back from the edge, he became the patient. The best doctor keeps you out of the hospital in the first place.
Chapter 07 · Now
Founder and clinical director of Mortensen Medical, a 501(c)(3) in Thousand Oaks serving veterans, first responders and the uninsured. Principal investigator on registry protocol PPRN-001-2025. Author of The Cockroach Diet. Builder of the Killer Health knowledge base and the Malibu Wellness Retreat. Master's in Learning Technologies with a published thesis on social entrepreneurship. He practices as a licensed PA-C and works as an MD researcher, and he is exact about both.
"Make everyone around you better." A good teammate is one who helps each individual perform better. As a patient, you are part of the team. No client is too big or too small.
Past collaborations
On-set medical consultant for film and commercial productions including The Outpost, Tin Soldier and The Waterman; clients have included Nike, Warner Bros., Sundance Channel and Stand Up To Cancer. Field work with the American Red Cross and Samaritan's Purse. The full photo record lives on the philanthropy page.
The people who make it a clinic
Elaine Marquez Mortensen, ND, medical director. Rhythmic bioidentical hormone replacement for women, PRP and injection medicine, biofeedback, and the functional cases everyone else gave up on. She does the bloodwork herself.
Kaveh Newmen, Esq., counsel. Newmen Law, P.C. One of the quiet authorities on peptide regulation, 503A and 503B compounding, and the structures that let this work happen in daylight.
Pamela Liebenthal, office manager and registry coordinator. The person who answers when you call.