William Wall: How a decades-old hip replacement turned me into a medical exhibit in Italy
William Wall: 'I joked that they wouldn’t be engaged in surgery but in archaeology and that my hip was an historical artefact.' Picture: Larry Cummins
My ancient artificial hip came apart as I was on my way to speak at a secondary school in the city of Genoa. It was, to say the least, painful. It wasn’t exactly new. In fact it was 42 years old, well past its sell-by date as defined by the surgeon who gave it to me back in the prehistory of 1982. "It should last 25 years," he said. So much for guarantees!
In Italy you can walk in (or hobble) and get an X-ray without a doctor’s letter and have it read on the spot and so I did. I got a taxi to the centre. When the radiologist saw it he went pale. "You shouldn’t be standing up, let alone walking," he said. "It’s OK," I replied, "I have a taxi waiting outside". That did nothing to calm him. "Go to the hospital immediately," he said.
