A woman who had orthopedic surgery underwent a partial knee replacement and the doctor waited until after the patient was in the recovery room when he took an x-ray for the first time. It wasn't clear whether the hardware was in the right place. Despite the fact there was a question as to whether the knee was correctly positioned, the doctor decided not to do anything about it and sent the patient for physical therapy.
Over the next few weeks the patient continued to complain of pain. Over the next couple of months the pain continued unabated. The patient finally went to another orthopedist with these complaints and the first thing he did was take an x-ray to see what was going on. The x-ray clearly showed that the hardware in the knee was totally in an incorrect place and the patient now required corrective surgery within three months after having the initial hardware put in.
When the patient had the corrective surgery, she had to have the partial knee replacement removed and now she had to have a total knee replacement put in which will hopefully last her for many years to come. The original knee replacement was supposed to last for 10-12 years, but because the doctor did not put it in the correct position this patient now needed to have surgery at a much earlier time period under general anesthesia. Luckily for this particular woman, after undergoing a recuperative period of time, she did very well with her total knee replacement.
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