Recycled Implants

[Jetlag]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16877393

 

[Josephine]

What a spiffing idea! Fits in with my eco-warrior inclinations perfectly!

 

[C Mac]

My OS's office has a research component and they ask for your hip back when you die and they'd also like the other side as well --apparently they study wear patterns. I don't know what they do with it when they are done...

 

[Josephine]

Interesting .... I know I had (and still have) a whole box full of implants sent over to me by the mortuary years ago - which had, I hasten to add, been appropriately cleaned and sterilized! As well as many than were removed in a revision.

 

[Pumpkin]

Excellent Idea! I hope this is what happened to my Mother in Laws bilateral hips.

 

[haldox]

Very interesting!

My husband and I were talking about cremation,etc and I said I wanted to be cremated(he protested btw) but he did make a joke that I would "jingle" in the urn:th_heehee:

 

[Jetlag]

Haldox - remind your husband that he could remove the implants from the urn and sell them for scrap. Then you wouldn't jingle and he would have some extra cash for that big screen TV.

 

[haldox]

Haldox - remind your husband that he could remove the implants from the urn and sell them for scrap. Then you wouldn't jingle and he would have some extra cash for that big screen TV.

Ya right..Im not giving him any ideas:secretaea:

 

[Poppet]

What a good idea, John is going to put mine on eBay I can just imagine the ad!

'One owner, near new, LOL (little old lady). Low mileage, regularly serviced, never taken over 5 K's an hour, metallic finish'.

Please make an offer.........'

So I guess, am going before him! Not sure about that idea

 

[Jamie]

It's a logical and wonderful idea to recycle this metal. But....oh my....I can already hear the late night television talk show hosts joking about it!!!

 

[Bumpa]

Jetlag, thanks for airing(!) this subject and I'm amazed that it is done on a commercial scale. When I worked we used to send any unwanted prostheses or fracture screws and plates to World Orthopaedic Concern - part of the British Orthopaedic Association. The address was in Bristol and most of the 'spare' parts went to countries in Southern Africa. Robbie Denham a consultant in Portsmouth used to collect implants from the local crematoriums - don't know what he did with them. I have a few hip stems (titanium alloy) left that can be used as door knockers!
I remember some years ago selling a lot of hemiarthroplasty (endoprostheses) to a metal merchant in Cambridge.
In the UK presently, because of the high cost of metals, we have many thefts: phone cables, lead from church roofs and manhole covers.
The message from this is hang on tightly to your hip and knee joints!!!

 

[Jamie]

Oh, gee! First the tabloid fear mongers told stories of poor innocent people being put under in a hotel room and having organs stolen....now I have to worry about my knee implant too!!! Eeek!:hysterical:

I guess the old story of being worth more "dead than alive" is getting more true every day!:th_heehee:

 

[Anitawants2tango]

Kevin, thanks for sharing. Like Jo I am an Eco warrior, and, Bumpa, I love that image of my implant being some future hipster's :th_heehee: (could not resist the pun, sorry) door knocker.

 

[Josephine]

A long, long time ago, I sent a boxful of used plates, screws and pins to an ortho surgeon in Thailand. I got his name from a British surgeon who worked out there but would come home periodically to update his skills. This surgeon told me how they were so poor they could not buy a stock of screws and stuff so when a patient had a broken ankle (for instance) and needed to have it fixed with a screw, he would have to wait until another patient came in to have his screw removed. It would be cleaned and sterilized and put into the next patient! I asked "but what happens if the screw is damaged during removal?" and the reply was that he would have to go home and go on the waiting list again! I still have the orthopaedic surgeon's letter of thanks.

Apparently his patients were peasant farmers whose families survival depended upon the crop from their land. If he couldn't sow and reap a crop, they didn't eat. I doubt much has changed since those days.

 

[Jamie]

Wow, Jo....now THAT'S a story!!!

 

[ozagility]

:hysterical: I am thoroughly enjoying this thread, coincidink, only last week I too was discussing cremation and what would happen to my metal and ceramic bits with my husband. He refused to participate on the morbid topic so I am doubly happy I have joined this list with other members equally as inquisitive as I. I laughed at Sandy's husbands advertisement proposal for her bits, and Jo's factual accounts of recycling were fascinating. We are a weird bunch we joint replacement recipients aren't we. The cash for metal scrap also good, though I would prefer to be the recipiant of the $'s. Thanks jetlag,

 

[Bumpa]

ozagility, you've reminded me of a lovely story told by Bob Hope some years ago. His sister asked their aged mother if she wanted to be cremated or buried when she died - after apologising for bringing up the subject.
Their mother replied: "Surprise me!"
Now you know where he got his humour from.

 

[Rick02809]

I just hope that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of RI pays the hospital bill, I dont want the hip to be on the repossession list!!! :skeptical:

. The address was in Bristol ...... Robbie Denham a consultant in Portsmouth..........Cambridge.
In the UK presently, because of the high cost of metals, we have many thefts: phone cables, lead from church roofs and manhole covers.
The message from this is hang on tightly to your hip and knee joints!!!

Funny I live in Rhode Island in the town of Bristol, and directly over the bridge to our South is Portsmouth. Cambridge is just outside of Boston... I guess that is why this part of the USA is called "New England"

 

[C Mac]

Somehow, whenever I see this thread pop up I think of wind chimes... :th_heehee:

 

[Jamie]

Now that's funny!!! Maybe we could get a little sideline BoneSmart business going....:hysterical: