London : Britain’s oldest person is understood to have set a new world record by successfully having a hip replacement operation at the ripe old age of 112.
Gladys Hooper (in picture) from Ryde, Isle of Wight, had the surgery after falling and breaking her hip.
Her son, Derek Hermiston, 84, said the operation had gone “splendidly” and had given his mother a “new lease of life”. “I think she is the oldest person in the world to have a hip operation and the surgeon, Jason Millington, and the
anaesthetist were both courageous to take the decision to operate on someone of that age but the operation went splendidly,” he said.
Hermiston said his mother was recovering well after the operation last Friday. He said, “She is standing but not walking yet, they are taking it rather carefully with her as you never know what happens at that age. She listens to music and she’s chattingaway”.
Guinness World Records currently lists John Randall as the oldest person to have a total hip replacement at the age of 102 years, three months and 30 days at Pinderfields hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in November 2011.
Hooper was born in Dulwich, south-east London, and was brought up in Brighton, East Sussex, before she became a concert pianist, started one of the first hire-car companies and later ran Kingscliff House school, which went on to becomeBrighton College. Millington, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Isle of Wight NHS trust, who performed the operation at St Mary’s hospital in Newport, said, “Mrs Hooper’s recovery has been slow but steady. Her recovery is as well as I could have hoped for but by no means is she out of the woods so to speak and we really have to wait and see how she continues to recover. The first month will be the most crucial”. “I have had correspondence since the surgery to suggest that not only is Mrs Hooper the oldest patient in the UK to have had hip fracture surgery, but possibly the oldest documented case worldwide,” he said.
Millington said that age was not a risk in itself when carrying out such surgery but every effort was made to reduce
stress on her system.
