"I'll Keep My Zimmer Hip as a Souvenir"

West Babylon, NYPeter is one "pissed-off guy." Since getting a Zimmer hip replacement in 2008, he has lived with chronic pain, worse than before surgery. He told the orthopedic surgeon that something was wrong, and in December 2010, he had a second bone density test. "I had to get the Zimmer hip replaced and went through revision surgery last month," Peter says.

"I injured my leg a few times in the 1980s and it was basically bone on bone. In 2000 I decided to do something about it: the x-ray showed that I had no cartilage left, but my doctor said I was too young to have a hip replacement. I waited until I was 51 to have my first hip replacement—I thought it was going to be the only one."

Peter says that right from the get-go, he never felt any comfort with this Zimmer hip replacement and definitely had less range of motion. He first had a bone density test about one year after the Zimmer replacement, but nothing looked untoward. Even so, the pain in his hip area and femur was 24/7. "I had pain before the surgery because it was bone on bone, but that was manageable compared to this," he says. "I could barely put my socks on, and couldn't sit, stand or walk for any great period of time. And the pain kept me awake at night.

"After a few months I got to the point where I couldn't do anything. My friends knew people who had hip replacements, but they didn't have problems. Then I saw an ad on TV about the Zimmer Durom Cup recall and lawsuits. So I phoned my surgeon's office and asked his nurse what kind of hip I had—she confirmed that indeed it was a Zimmer. She suggested that my body might 'reject it,' but I didn't have a fever and the x-rays looked fine; I figured it was defective.

"After all this time, it had crossed my mind that my problems were psychological; maybe my mind was playing games with me and I was making up the problem. But now I knew that wasn't the case. I had another bone scan; this time I was injected with a contrast agent. My surgeon said the dye went into an area where it shouldn't go—meaning the hip had to come out.

"By this time my femur felt like a pencil being pushed into a straw, until the straw explodes. I had no choice—it was either revision surgery or never walk again. Right now I'm recuperating and starting physical therapy—again—next week.

"As for the defective Zimmer hip, my surgeon told me that he sent it to the manufacturer. My attorney told me that was the worst thing he could have done, so now I am trying to get it back because I might need it in court. Besides, it is mine; at least I could put it on the mantelpiece as a souvenir and conversation piece; it must be good for something…"