Question
My husband was shot with a shotgun appox 9 years ago. It was 2 ft away from his hip and it was buck shot. At the time the doctor sent him home after doing multiple surgery to clean up the leg injury. They installed an electronic shock machine into his leg and hoped for the best on regrowth of the bone. At this time they did not do any kind of replacement. After several months he was several inches shorter because the bone did not grow and had actually turned into chalk like substance. The doctor decided to replace the bone in the leg with the titanium rod. They did only a partial hip replacement. This was in 2002. Three weeks ago he came home from work complaining of severe pain in his knee. We thought that he had just twisted it some way that wasn't normal. Then he said that the pain moved to his knee. Finally after 2 weeks of pain he got into see his ortho doctor. They took new xrays and told him that he had broken the rod in his leg. They told him that the rod had broken down in his bone at the bottom. Basically the doctor said that it is like a wire coat hanger if you bend it enough in the same place enough it will break. To us that is saying that he did something wrong. They were telling us that it was he fault. We just don't understand how this could happen and have you ever heard of this before? Please help he has gone back in yesterday to have a total hip replacement and we want to make sure that this is the last time that we have a terrible problem.
By the way he was shot in the line of duty as a police officer.

Answer
Chandra

For awhile my son wanted to go into law enforcement and he went on ride alongs, and he was very active as a volunteer with our local police force, so I truly understand what your husband is going through.

That being said, with any type of bone or joint problem where a prosthesis is put in there is wear and tear on the surgery site beacause of repetetive movements so I am not surprised that your husband has issues of wear and tear.  In my eight surgeries each one got more involved to fix because of wear and tear on surgeries that were performed as best as they could for the time that they were done.

I cannot say for sure if the doctor did anything wrong or if your husband did anything wrong.   My gut is telling me that your husband is suffering from wear and tear on the original surgery site and it needs to be fixed and updated.  I hope that you understand what I mean.

I think the Total hip replacement is a goo d move for him.  Make sure the doctor who does the surgery has done many of the same type of surgeries.  If not, do not let him touch your husband.  Your husband is a special case and needs to have a doctor who specializes in the type of surgery he needs.  He needs a doctor who has done this before.

You never said how old your husband is, but depending on his age, be prepared that he may need revision surgery down the road.  That cannot be helped.

I hope I answered your questions.

My prayers are with your family.

Sharon Davis