If the Biomet Magnum Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement System was good enough for Olympic champion gymnast Mary Lou Retton, it should have been good enough for 62-year-old Ellen Pardee, whose life was very active until she started having hip pain in 2010.

“Rowing, boating, hiking, going out and taking photos, none of which I could do,” Pardee said, because of the pain she started feeling in her left hip.

However, six months after surgery – during which the Biomet Magnum was implanted to replace her left hip joint — Pardee’s pain was even worse, she told KIRO 7 on Wednesday.

According to the Bothell woman, it took more than seven years for her doctors to pinpoint that it was most likely the metal on metal Magnum replacement causing the problems, including excruciating pain and heavy metal poisoning.

“The loss of balance was terrible. I felt nauseous all the time,” Pardee said.

Pardee’s doctor opened her up again two weeks later, to examine the hip replacement site and “discovered that I had a huge cyst and a bunch of soft tissue damage caused by the metal on metal hip my doctor had raved about back in 2010,” she said.

Complete Article and Source: Hip replacement “ticking time-bomb” for “thousands” of Washington patients | KIRO-TV