Perhaps one of the hottest medical and legal issues these days is the one that involves the failure of artificial hip replacements. The crux of the matter is that the failure—often untimely, prematurely and unexpected—of such artificial hip replacements can cause debilitating injuries that may be worse than the original condition they are meant to treat.
At the heart of the issue is the purportedly high failure rate of new all-metal or metal-on-metal artificial hip or knee replacement devices. Compared with older artificial joints, which usually lasted 15 years or more, these new all-metal artificial hip replacements tend to produce more tissue and bone damage and other chronic side-effects that are never mentioned in the get-go.
Worse, as it turns out, the whole issue is not simply a matter of pointing a finger at one particular manufacturer or at a particular homogenous device. The issue is so complex that many experts believe it would take years for legal authorities and the government to sort it out, not to mention the exceptionally huge amount of money involved in it.
“New” is not necessarily “Better”
Like manufacturers in other fields, makers of artificial hip and knee replacements are constantly churning out “newer” and “more advanced” models of their products. These new products are supposed to have carefully researched and meticulously tested new features that give them distinct advantages over old models. In the case of artificial hip replacements, many surgeries have been performed (numbering to tens of thousands) in the past few years to replace older hip replacements with what are supposedly “better” all-metal or metal-on-metal hip replacement devices. Such all-metal hip replacements consist of a ball-and-joint package that is made of metal, usually cobalt or chromium.
Recent studies, however, indicate a disturbing fact. According to an important orthopedic study, the newer hip replacement devices are not actually more durable than older models made of composite materials. Worse, the performance of the newer devices lags behind the very ones they are replacing. In fact, roughly a third of such new hip replacement devices fail within five years—this compared with the usual 15-year “life” of older models. The premature failure of all-metal hip replacements means tens of thousands of surgical removal would be necessary in the coming years, at great cost to patients and their families, and indirectly, to tax payers as well.
Even without access to the full details of the problem, one can easily imagine the “horrors” brought about by this medical mess. Needless to say, defective artificial hips—presumably implanted in tens of thousands of patients since 2005—are causing widespread financial trouble. Such a problem does not only affect the patients themselves, but also every one else that is involved—the government, insurance companies, the employers of patients who had received such defective artificial hips. One estimate places the average hospital and medical bills at $300,000 per patient—but take note that such an amount is well within conservative estimates. Multiply that to several thousands of recipients of defective hip replacements, and you find yourself staring at billions of dollars of money hemorrhaged from taxpayers, insurance companies, individuals, and the government. This, indeed, is like rubbing salt on the country’s already bleeding healthcare wound.
Emotional and Physical Costs
Of course, aside from the mentioned financial drain on patients and any related party, defective artificial hips can also cause great emotional and physical suffering. Consider the fact that having to undergo any surgery already entails some amount of physical pain. Now imagine having to undergo a subsequent “corrective” surgery (or, in some cases, multiple surgeries) just to remove the defective hip replacement that had just been implanted. The collateral damage to tissue and bone can be significant, and therefore, incredibly painful. Add to that are the weeks or months a patient may spend trying to recover from the operation, if that is possible at all.
Any trauma or injury that involves the bone is, to put it simply, extremely painful. And at times, the pain can not be dulled by ordinary painkillers—there are cases in which only powerful sedatives are useful. These considerations are taken into account whenever a major surgical operation is involved. With the pain of artificial hip replacements, the suffering could be tremendous.
Take, for instance, the case of a certain patient who had had an artificial hip replacement a few months ago. Soon after the first operation, due largely to what turned out to be a defective artificial hip, the patient’s pelvis fractured. This required a subsequent surgery to remove what had been implanted.
To make matters worse, some serious infection developed at the site of surgery, leaving the patient having to live without a hip for the ensuing months. The patient’s condition required high-level care for five months, so you can imagine how huge the hospital bill eventually amounted to: about half a million dollars, excluding doctors’ bills, which in turn meant an ever deepening emotional suffering. When you can no longer leave the house and do the things you used to do, or when you are conscious, in pain, and unable to leave the hospital bed, it’s not easy to put a price on the emotional damage you have endured.
Often, the kind of side-effects that arise from defective hip replacements are such that the patient loses physical independence or mobility, leaving them completely reliant on the assistance of others. There are cases in which the defective device damages the tissue and bone surrounding the implant, thereby crippling the patient or subjecting them to live a life saturated with uneccessary pain.
Defective Artificial Hip Replacements: the Bottom Line
The rising cost of artificial hip replacement failure is currently one of the hottest medical issues, especially against the backdrop of the already sensitive matter of health care. What’s more, although the financial drain is the most obvious consequence of these defective hip replacements, it is not only about money. The almost incredible suffering endured by recipients of such implants may never be fully measured in ways that may make sense.
No related posts.
Loading ...