Re: Wife needs a hip replacement

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On 5/18/06, John wrote:
> Hello, I hope someone can give me suggestions, ideas, or a
> place to turn to where I can get information/help. My wife
> was born with her hip dislocated and out of the socket. The
> doctors told her mother she would never walk. She was in a
> boddy cast at the age of 15 months and was in it for 18
> months. After getting out the doctors said everything was
> fine, it is looking good etc. She is now 26 years old. I
> took her to an orthepedic surgeon due to the pain in the
> same hip. He showed us the x-rays which showed that my
> wifes hip was badly deformed, the ball which goes into the
> hip is the size of a marble. The doctor told her that she
> needed to have her hip replaced whenever she can no longer
> stand the pain. He said that if the doctors would have
> found this when she was born (and not at 15 months) and
> they put it back in properly and performed their duties
> properly, she would not be needing a hip replacement today.
> She now also has arthritus (spelling??) in her hips. What
> can we do about this/ if anything? I know it has been a
> long time, but we just found out about 1 year ago as to the
> severity of it. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in
> advance.

Dear John: There is no legal remedy for your wife's
condition, since the statute of limitations has long since
expired. Please understand: this is not to say that
everything happened as it should; far from it. It is simply
that you are time-barred. On occasion, the statute of
limitations can be challenged in your State Supreme Court on
the grounds of constitutionality. But that has to be based on
the time of the statute beginning to run when a 'reasonable
person knew, or should have known, that there had been
negligence'.

Here, your wife was born with this condition and has had it
all her life. Since the condition is a painful one, she must
have often seen doctors for this. It sounds as if this is the
first time a doctor stated that this should have been treated
differently at birth. That would seem to indicate that all
the other doctors did not think so, and that augurs negatively
for your case.

Now that's my take as an Attorney. As a Nurse, however, I
hope she will eventually get the replacement because it makes
an enormous difference in quality of life. These procedures
are enormously successful; and it is no longer the case where
orthopedists try to have young patients (like your wife) wait
until they are in their 50's or 60's to have it done, on the
theory that the new hip will 'wear out' before the patient's
life does. Instead, it is more and more contemplated that a
person with dysplasia will perhaps have a second procedure.

I hope this has been of some assistance to you, and good luck.
Attorney/Nurse