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Australia, BHR, Cobalt, DePuy, General practitioner, Health, Hip Replacement, Magnetic resonance imaging, Medicine, NephewSmith, Smith and Nephew
I am 12 weeks post-op today (July 27 2012), following revision surgery of a BHR I received in Dec 2003, at the age of 47. I was advised to go this route as I was young and reasonably active, and the resurfacing would allow for bone stock to remain for the inevitable full replacement down the track. Hmmm.
Since that time I have been getting progressively unwell, with flu-like symptoms, bursitis, inflammation (my fingers look like cocktail franks), failing eye-sight, bladder infections, fluid on both knees and degeneration of the cartilage (4 arthroscopies), mental and physical fatigue, breathlessness, painful incontinence and ‘women’s problems’ that led to a full hysterectomy in Sept 2009, and increasing pain around the effected hip, sometimes popped, seized up or squeaked.
I understand when others on this blog talk about their frustration at not being heard. The doctors I have seen about these various issues do all the usual tests, and then shake their heads and look at me sideways when they can find nothing in the results to explain my symptoms.
Having read about the DuPuy recall and the issue with metal decomposition, I asked my GP to test for Chromium and Cobalt last December. The results showed a Chromium level of 423 nmol/L and Cobalt of 830 nmol/L. A subsequent MRI showed a large pseudo-tumour wrapped around what was left of the femoral neck, and a basically dead bursa. My original surgeon suggested a revision asap, and on the whole has been co-operative.
However, he seems to have adopted the line that the hip didn’t fail because it hadn’t moved or misaligned, and when he removed it it popped out without any great need to hammer away at it (hip surgery is a brutal exercise).
My concern with this attitude, which seems to prevail amongst the medical fraternity, is that it mitigates against the device being recalled. What they should be doing is supporting their patients to instigate a class action against Smith and Nephew who have clearly developed and foisted upon an unsuspecting public, a device that has indeed failed. For it to disintegrate within our bodies, depositing carcinogenic metals that slowly poison us, is a very clear failure.
Then again, maybe they are, but I haven’t heard about it. Has anyone else? especially in Australia?
The last 12 weeks have been a long, slow and painful recovery (and I thought laying on my back for 6 weeks was going to be the biggest nuisance!!) I am still hobbling around on a walking stick, and in great pain (8/10); from the op – in the groin and buttock area, which radiates down the thigh and up into my lower back; and co-incidentally – the rest of my body is aching from hobbling around on a walking stick! In my more optimistic moments I had held out some hope that the symptoms I’d experienced would just go away, once the offending implant was out, but no such luck (apart from the painful incontinence, which is a good thing because I’m still hobbling around on a ^%$@*&^ walking stick!).
I am waiting on the results of yet another blood test to see how well my body is flushing the Co and Cr, and I’m having my 12 week post-op appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday, where I’ll be putting to him my reasons for thinking the BHR failed. As in EPIC FAILURE.
Anyway, that’s my story. Any news that anyone has about the likelihood of the BHR being recalled would be good to hear. Good luck to anyone else in the same invidious position; you have my sympathy/empathy and support.
Lee
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I can so relate Lee,
For all the reasons you outlined I too had a BHR “installed” in 2006 at the age of 49. During the following 5 years I experienced clicking and grinding sensations but put up with it.
After the Depuy scandal I decided to get a blood test for Co and Ch . My levels were Chromium 1477 nmol/L and Cobalt 3724 nmol/L !I consulted two eminent surgeons in this field both of whom said….revision at once!. I had a THR last November plus a bone graft to restore my dissolving pelvis and a metal plate inserted to keep everything together. There was also quite a bit of rotting flesh around the prosthesis which had to be scraped away. My ion levels have reduced significantly but I still have a degree of pain. I’m grateful to be back at work on a part time basis but this whole saga has definitely changed me.
I don’t comment very often on these things but being a fellow Australian thought you might like some support.
Hi Karen
There are so many S&N victims around. Would you care to document your journey so I can blog it – semi anonymously if you like?
Earl
OK…………..what do you need?
Hi Karen
as much as you want to write with as much detail as you care to share.
Any photo’s or X-rays too?
Earl
Hi Lee,
I too remain mired in BHR Purgatory, and my revised hip is going terribly wrong. I have had many of the symptoms you describe, and had pitting edema all the way down the right leg, (quite a ways from the surgical site). Perhaps most frustrating is the way my surgeon says, ”Well, looking at your film….I’d say it’s lined up in there perfectly”, always satisfied that he has addressed the issues in their entirety. It has become a strangely surrealistic adventure, one in which it’s implied mine is simply psychosomatic hypochondria, as if I’ve created an imaginary set of symptoms from whole cloth! I am seriously having a hard time remaining calm in the face of my surgeon’s growing duplicity and obfuscation. In short, I can relate to you and you to me and Karen to you and Earl to Karen and I think that’s why we all come here. I know I come here to talk, support, and perhaps provide some degree of comfort or humor to others. I try as best I can to inform my BHR MoM (and all other) hip compatriots, and I have gained all of the above from Earl and many others who’s stories are here. I feel better after having read or shared something. Most importantly, of course, is that this place reminds me I am not alone in this labyrinthine quagmire.
Hi Karen,
I see you are all too familiar with Mr. Smith and his Nephew and their breakthrough BHR system! I try to interject humor lately to offset anger and depression, etc., i.e., the things I need least in my healing process, if I can call it such. I got that from email exchanges with Earl, who kindly allows me to post here. Things have been so crazy for me that I have been remiss in not coming here lately, often forgetting their is a world outside my own darkened one and that other human beings suffer as bad or even worse than I do (Howard Sadwin comes to mind). All BHR victims must band together and come out with their own full story, irrespective of their position on spaceship earth (you folks sit down a ways and across the aisle from me). I do hope you grant Earl’s request above, as the more people that speak, up the harder it will become for S&N to remain in their dastardly denial of this destructive device they have poisoned us with.
I wish you both well. We will make it though this, even if I’m forcing that thought upon myself as I write at the moment. And ‘in the moment’ I must try and remain, else my malaise is magnified and I mourn the mistake I made. Oh how I wish i could step in the door of Jules Vern’s ‘Time Machine’…..but I can’t and must not allow myself such thoughts. If I do not ‘maintain’ (as we say over here), the alternative is a complete and utter descent into a maelstrom. If I wasn’t getting acupuncture twice a week, I don’t think I would be able to apply the breaks to my currently broken body. (It might be more appropriate here to substitute the word ’mind’ for ’body’, as this arduous ordeal seems almost without end). It is obvious we all to some degree share mental anguish over the whole sordid affair.
We will get there. I must entertain no thoughts of any other outcome!
The Truth Will Out!
PS –I am seeing my surgeon Monday next and a specialist the following day, and plan to submit a ’report’ for any and all other BHR (and for that matter all MoM) sufferers who might benefit from its content.
Did our surgeons consider this?
http://www.med.cornell.edu/deans/pdf/hippocratic_oath.pdf
May all be well.
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I am having serious problems with my smith-nephew hip. High metal levels, swelling, inflammation, pain. Replacement was 2008. Is this normal? Thanks, Mark
Hi Mark
this is not normal – there are many others with the same problem.
You will need to have the S&N hip replaced pronto or your health will go downhill and you will sustain real damage to the bone and tissue.
You need to get a date scheduled for a revision ASAP – I got a Zimmer ceramic on ceramic second time around and it has been great.
Earl
Earl is spot on here, Mark! As a fellow Smith and Nephew metalosis victim (My poisonous metal on metal hip was revised in April of this year) — which is of course what you are, presently poisoned as you are by this hideous device. I took his advice and had it done. It is scary, I didn’t want to do it, but it has to go and by the end of the month, man!
Lee:
You wrote:
“My original surgeon suggested a revision asap, and on the whole has been co-operative.
However, he seems to have adopted the line that the hip didn’t fail because it hadn’t moved or misaligned, and when he removed it it popped out without any great need to hammer away at it (hip surgery is a brutal exercise).
My concern with this attitude, which seems to prevail amongst the medical fraternity, is that it mitigates against the device being recalled. What they should be doing is supporting their patients to instigate a class action against Smith and Nephew who have clearly developed and foisted upon an unsuspecting public, a device that has indeed failed. For it to disintegrate within our bodies, depositing carcinogenic metals that slowly poison us, is a very clear failure”
That is the most succinct description of our S&N nightmares I’ve yet read. My surgeon behave in exactly the same way, and where I first felt him genuine in his care and concern, and the careful revision (he charged me for again), I find him today totally disingenuous, and he DOES NOT TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT HE KNOWS. I can’t look at the man anymore, as I have now seen his records of our last meeting, where he explains “Patient thought implant loose, Xray verifies device positioned perfectly, no anomalies visible”. “Explained with the extent of tissue damage he incurred (like what, I caused it?), patient should expect a long recovery”. (So, what, ‘patient, be patient’)? He has said nothing of my tissue damage being ‘extensive’ in any way. I was told I had a few small pseudotumors (Mark, you may have a few in there, as most S&N Metal (MoM) people do).
This is a prominent research and teaching hospital up here that put this in me and they have now quite clearly moved into ‘ass-covering’ mode! Period. The man has now demonstrated lucidly enough who it is he sides with in this looming battle, the legal conflict that S&N see ahead.
And that segues nicely into the legal realm; yes, their is legal ‘action’ against S&N in the States, and many lawyers here are just now taking cases against this recalcitrant behemoth of a company. It’s all in the money for these heartless bastards, and when they see the full extent of their ‘exposure’ to the many metalosis cases that stand before them, they will recall the damn thing (Out damn thing)!
It just reaches a tipping point, on their balance sheet. “Do we cut our losses now and recall, or do we continue to stall, while watching our liability for more and more metalosis cases continue to increase”? It’s going to tip soon, Lee, and they’ll recall their toxic toy. Their now appears a ‘chink’ in their well-fabricated armor, soon to be torn asunder.
Hang tough, hip brothers and sisters.
The Truth Will Out!
I too had BHR problems resulting in a revision. My metal counts were above normal but nothing like a lot of you. I had constant pain, swelling, abnormal gate. My wife constanly tells me to stand up straight, and try not to wabble. Pain pills, anti depressants, anti infame, sleep aids, therapy 3/wk, insurance calls, and doctor visits has replaced work since the age of 48. BHR installed 2010 revision to a total stryker hip 2012. Before having the revision my Surgeon installed a stryker hip on my virgin hip which has been great. Then installed the same him replacing the BHR, but I’m still having problems with this revised hip. There was metal deposits and bone deteriation, cup size is much different and needed 2 additional screws to keep in place. Dr has given me two injections in this revised hip. The first injection gave me some relief in the groen/psoad area, but the second injection (which he did not seem to want to do) did nothing; even aggrivated things. He wants to do another revision, but I’m not sure what to do? I’ve had 5 ops since late 2009 : Neck, back, and three hip. When is enough, enough. I also would like to ask if anyone has had any dealing with Parilman & Associates, P.C.? They want me to sign papers for a law suite at 40% in event of recovery 45% if it goes to court. They also say counsel will devide fees as followes: 90% to Gori, Julian & Associates, P.C., and 10% to Pariliman & Associates, P.C.. Plus any fees and expenses are on me. I’ve never done anything like this before, but everything I’ve been going through has made me a differant person. Does anyone know anything about this lawyer stuff? I just am not sure about signing this stuff. It is made out like no money no pay; so you have nothing to lose, but I’m not sure. Any input would be welcome. My brain does’nt think like it used to. Thank you
Mark, DO NOT SIGN with the attorneys you cited, as the one firm is really an unnecessary ‘middleman’ and merely trolling for clients on the web before passing the actual case on to another, much larger firm. I am a BHR victim and almost went your route, but realized after talking to Ben at that his would be the only firm I would work with in all phases of my case. There I could expect to speak directly with any attorney working my case at any time, as opposed to only speaking with the middleman (Parilman & Associates in your case). These people who would hold your legal contract are never really involved in your case at all. Gori, Julian & Associates would be the firm working on your case, and the people you would have signed with would have absolutely nothing to do with anything — except getting your ‘John Hancock’ on the dotted line. (I hope you haven’t signed yet).
I would recommend you send an email to Ben, because his contingency fee is only 33 & 1/3% if settled and 40% only if it drags on into litigation. Anybody who wants to charge 40% for a settlement is padding their take in the deal, as that extra 7 & 2/3% amounts to quite a bit of money and allows for the firm who found you to be compensated.
Send an email to Ben Gordon to find out for yourself, and/or at least do it before you sign anything the deprives you of money upon settlement of your case, and precludes direct service and communication from the firm who is actually on top of and working your case.
Hang tough man. I say this to myself as much as i do you, as my April 20012 revision of a BHR product is becoming more painful every day and an MRI last week that showed ‘fluid’ around the implant again. I will have it aspirated early next month to determine if it is an infection or a pseudotumor/AVAL, either one of which might lead to my third revision of this hip in three years, and two revisions of that same hip in less than six months. What planet have we landed on, man? And yeah, how much is one body supposed to take? I can tell you this, It is very much a relief to have legal representation now, and my only only focus is on healing now.
I will never, ever give up in my duel with S$N (oops), and still strongly believe ‘the truth will out’ and we ‘the poisoned’ will yet see justice done. That’s why I come here, to help others and receive the assistance I myself need to keep fighting this horrible dream I am seemingly unable to awaken from.
Good Luck Mark!
PS — Ask to keep anything they remove from your body in writing, sent by letter or handed to both your surgeon and the hospital’s patient advocate or ombudsman, etc. The property is yours to keep, and don’t let them scare you by telling you you shouldn’t take it home because it’s a bio-hazard. I have three failed prosthetic implants here at home, and I — and members of my family and even some friends have handled them many times with no ill effect. They are sterilized after passing through the hospital’s autoclave, so for example even though their are bits of necrotic tissue visible underneath the hollow underside of my femoral ball, they are no longer a hazard. Any good law firm will tell you to ask for your failed implant in advance of any pending revision, as they would prefer to see an independent analysis of wear and abrading as opposed to any tests that might be performed by S&N. I can see with my naked eye where the metal ions ‘wore off’ through movement (‘articulation’ to the orthopods) on my device. The entire femoral head was filled with a hideous yellowish, dead mass of flesh, and had the color of ink on the side that was against the MoM device (So say my hospital records, which you should also get a copy of ASAP)
Thank you so much. I have not signed anything yet. I spent all day Sunday going over this stuff, and surfing internet trying to make up my mind. It just didn’t seem to be the correct way to go. It is hard when you don’t know. What really made me unsure was the urgent attempt to get me to sign. They even wanted to do it over the phone no paper work. Just didn’t seem like they were being up front with me. So you think Mr. Gordon is the way to go? I guess were stronger in numbers, and I would like to be of help to the rest of the people wronged on this site. Something keeps me coming back here when I feel all this s_ _ t is overwhelming me.
It’s the same for me Mark — I would be in bed around the clock if it wasn’t for finding people just like me on this site. Anyone who wants you to sign on the dotted line immediately is to me suspect, and I had to send all of my medical records to Ben BEFORE he decided to take my case. I now know he is the way to go, especially for people who have had revisions and have medically documented AVAL, etc., with their toxic S&N MoM implants. We have strength in numbers and need each other. This attorney has locked swords with S&N before and knows their counsel, etc. His is the firm we need to work with, and the more of us that sign with that firm the better become our chances of receiving justifiable compensation (Check out their website).
Send him an email and ask him if you can set a time to talk to him. He will respond as soon as he can, and will speak candidly about your plight and what you (we) are up against.
Good Luck!
Mark, if you do enter into any legal agreement, I feel you should keep everything you do with your attorney — potentially, now and/or otherwise — to yourself. It appears communications between a man and his counsel is inviolable, whereas once published that same man’s opinions may be used against him.
Are you disappointed at the response you received from the legal people? They appear deliberately obtuse, and my guess is justifiably so (no pun intended). Don’t give up the fight, man! Even if I got not one dime I would find satisfaction in the accelerating the end of this sordid implant enterprise.
We are where we are, brother, and my position is everyone should know what is happening — end of story. This is certifiably egregious bullshit, Mark, and irrespective of who gets what from whom I will not go quietly. I don’t expect any of the coming months to be quiet ones concerning such devices we are just now beginning to see the consequences of.
Stay positive and hang tough, Mark (yeah, hard for me to say) — we will all get through this in our own way.
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