Dr. Sir John Charnley
November 1, 1962: John Charnley, a British orthopedic surgeon, performs the world's 1st practical hip replacement operation, at Wrightington Hospital in Wigan, England -- then in Lancashire, now part of Greater Manchester.
John Charnley (no middle name) was born on August 29, 1911, in Bury, also in the part of Lancashire that was brought into Greater Manchester through the Local Government Act 1972. He was the son of a chemist and a nurse, so going into medicine was no stretch. He graduated from the medical school of Victoria University in Manchester, and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II, reaching the rank of Major.
Unhappy with the orthopedic (or, as it would be "spelt" in Britain, "orthopaedic") facilities at the Royal Manchester Infirmary, in 1958, he founded the hip surgery center at Wrightington Hospital, about 30 miles northwest of central Manchester.
In 1938, London surgeon Phillip Wiles performed the first successful total-hip replacement, using a stainless steel joint that was attached to bone with bolts and screws. The problem with this device was that these screws and bolts tended to come loose over time, so this was not a practical long-term solution.
In 1961, while working on a solution to the issues from Wiles' technique, he developed an enclosure that isolated the operating theater from the rest of the room, reducing the amount of bacteria and thus the rate of infection. He also developed a full-body surgical gown that incorporated an exhaust system, thus further reducing the chance of infection. In other words, even if he had failed to find a better way to replace a damaged hip, he would still have been an important figure in the history of medicine.
Charnley's replacement design was a vast improvement over Wiles', consisting of three parts: A stainless steel one-piece femoral stem and head, a Teflon (usually now polyethlene) acetabular component, and acrylic to cement it to the bone. Given the difficulties of Wiles' version, Charnley waited 5 years to publicly announce his method. It is now one of the most common surgeries in the world.
I myself have had it done on both hips, due to birth defects in both hips that led to severe osteoarthritis, which made walking, and even standing, painful. By the time I reached my late 40s, the way they were forcing me to walk had begun messing up my back, too. Getting those replacements were the two best decisions I've ever made: 95 percent of the leg and back pain is gone.
Despite a 20-year age difference, in 1958, Charnley married Jill Heaver, a fellow skiing enthusiast. They had a son, Tristram; and a daughter, Henrietta, and lived in Mere, in Cheshire, about 16 miles southwest of Manchester.
Charnley was awarded the Lister Medal for contributions to surgical science in 1975, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. He died on August 5, 1982, at the age of 70.
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November 1, 1962 was a Thursday. Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, was born.
Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. No NBA games were scheduled. But the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.
* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.
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