A 107-YEAR-OLD woman in Delhi may have become the world’s oldest patient to have a partial hip replacement, and hopes to be walking again
within a fortnight.
Lily Wauters, a 101-year-old British woman is recorded by the Guinness World Records as the oldest person to have a total hip replacement in 2007 when she was 101 years and 196 days old.
Vidyavati Chopra, of Delhi’s Bengali Market, underwent a partial hip replacement surgery three days ago and is possibly the oldest person to have such a procedure.
Vidyavati, who may be among the few lucky ones still alive to have seen the trio of Bhagat Singh, Sukhbir and Rajguru in prison, had met with a freakish accident and had fractured her hip this week leaving her family worried about the option of surgery because of her age.
But Chopra was readily willing to go under the surgeon’s scalpel which was an assuring sign for Dr M K Magazine, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Primus Ortho and Spine Hospital, who convinced the family.
Dr Magazine, who has been treating Chopra family for over 25 years and has treated their four-generations, told reporters that she recognised his touch when in operation theater and told him that she wants to be on her feet as soon as possible.
“It is common for people in 80s and 90s to get partial hip replacement surgery done. I have even treated a 104-year-old patient through this procedure. Hip fractures are quite common in this age-group but it was actually the grit of Vidyavati Chopra which makes her stand-out,” Dr Magazine said.
The surgery was nearly an hour long affair for the team comprising Dr Saurav Shukla, Dr Dattatreya Mohapatra, Dr Pradeep Govil and Dr Aman Dua who were led by Dr Magazine.
“We have replaced the fractured bone with an artificial one made of steel using special bone cement as her bones are too fragile to take the load of screws. She will be discharged by Monday (April 11) or Tuesday (April 12),” he said.
The surgeon said Vidyavati had broken her bones three to four times and every time recuperated back to normalcy quickly under his supervision. “She is a survivor”, he said.
“She will get back to her feet within a fortnight. In normal cases, we put patients on a walker within a couple of days of surgery. The patients are constantly instructed to not put weight on the injured leg. Since she is hard of hearing, constant instructions cannot be given. We will wait for a week
or so and then put her on walker,” he said.
Vidyavati’s daughter-in-law Shresht Lata Chopra, who is in her late sixties, said her mother-in-law spent her childhood in Sindh in Pakistan and got married at Nawanshahr near Jalandhar in Punjab before moving to Delhi in 1940 with her husband who was manager at an English company in Delhi.
“She was FA of that time which is equivalent to Higher Secondary of present times. Her mornings used to begin with newspapers and a cup of tea till her eyesight began to fade.
She still relishes ice-cream. This is not her first accident and every time she had got normalcy back,” she said.
Vidyavati had lost her only one son in 1999 and her husband long ago but she still controls the affairs of the household.
“She tells us about her visit to the Jail where Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were kept before their hanging. She describes them having a “sher jaisa (lion-like)” imposing personality.
“She is not a freedom fighter but she had taken part in the march that took place after the death of Lala Lajpat Rai and many other such activities. She even wore Khadi till freedom was achieved,” Shresht Lata said.
