A mum is finally to get a hip replacement op – thanks to the Sunday Mail – after waiting more than five years. Mother-of-six Joan Brown was first referred to a specialist in December 2017 by her GP but until last week was still to get a date for surgery.
The 60-year-old gran is in constant pain from both hips and her right knee and has to take morphine every four hours. She is unable to walk more than a few steps unaided and needs the use of a walking frame and wheelchair.
But, following our story about her plight in January, she has now been told surgery on her left hip will take place at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on May 15.
Joan, from Parkhead, Glasgow, said: “It has been a long wait and the pain has been getting worse. If the operation is a success, I am hoping to get surgery on my other hip and my knees. I just want to get back to having a normal life, free of pain.”
In the past three years, Joan has rarely left home and her son Scott had to give up work to become her full-time carer. She needs help each day with dressing, washing and cooking and has fallen down her stairs several times.
Campaigner Sean Clerkin, who took up her case, said: “Having represented Joan, I want to thank the Sunday Mail for highlighting her long wait to get a hip replacement. Your intervention has been decisive in Joan getting a date in May.”
Joan was given the good news on Tuesday following a complaint by Clerkin last month to Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board. In his response, director Neil McCallum said: “I’d like to wish Ms Brown well for her surgery and to apologise for the distress the delay may have caused.”
Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board had declined to comment.
But hospital sources claimed Joan was advised at her 2018 appointment to speak to her GP if she needed more treatment. She was put on the waiting list after she was seen in December 2021.
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