A number of hip implants are starting to fall apart according to a recent report from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. I originally stumbled on this news on a BBC website several weeks ago. Basically the scandal boils down to a company named Smith & Nephew (never trust your nephew) making a bunch of hip replacement parts and then shipping them over to the UK. Following that, they were shipped to hospitals to await use in surgery.
Eventually, somebody back at the office discovered that an “inappropriate mixing of head and cup sizes due to incorrect labelling of the cups” caused the things to basically fall apart. They issued what the Brits call a “medical device alert” and UK health professionals were all advised to send the hips back.
The two big parts of the hip replacements come in various sizes. Unfortunately, due to what was basically a labeling error at the assembly plant, the parts were mis-sized.
Unfortunately, a few hips had already found homes.
According to the BBC story, “Two UK patients have had their hip implants replaced after a labeling error meant they were given the wrong size.” Do these people not have quality control? Hip-replacement surgery is tough enough for a senior citizen to have to deal with, let alone having to get it done more than once FOR THE SAME HIP. Does nobody check these pieces of vital equipment that probably cost several thousand dollars? This type of oversight is completely wrong and can you believe that the company hasn’t even been sued yet? Can somebody get these people a lawyer?
The scariest part about this is that only half of the replacement hips affected by the re-call have been recovered. Who knows where the other ones are?
