The 60th anniversary of the hip replacement in Wigan that has transformed millions of lives worldwide since its inception back in 1962, will be celebrated next week. The surgery at Wrightington Hospital put its creator Sir John Charnley and the small hospital on the northern edge of the borough on the map.
Professor Charnley’s work and sheer dedicated genius catapulted the then small Wrightington Hospital in Wigan onto the world stage as an international centre of excellence. But the hip replacement as we know it was almost never made as Charnley’s search for the right design and suitable materials foundered several times before being successful.
Now, the Trust created in his name to fund research, education and training into orthopaedics is celebrating the remarkable man and his pioneering, influential work.
