Former News Anchor Warns People About Metal Hip Implants

On this episode of the Drugwatch Podcast, our guest is former news anchor Frances Scott. When Scott got the news that she needed a double hip replacement at 38 because of a hip deformity, the active mother of three didn’t take it lightly.

“I was focused on, ‘Do I really need it or not? Will it help me? And which surgeon do I think cares the most about me in particular and will be vested in my success in this surgery?’” Scott told Drugwatch.

She got second opinions from several specialists and researched all the information available. A year later, she decided to go through with the operation and received two Pinnacle metal hips.

But the quick recovery she was expecting didn’t happen.

“I had known a lot of people — their grandmother got her hips replaced and then she was back on the golf course within six weeks. That was definitely not what I was experiencing,” she said.

Scott faced a host of complications because of the metal building up in her blood. Along with severe pain and mental fog, she suffered from lesions that would develop on her face and skin. They would crack open and bleed. Then she had mood swings that would leave her in tears for no reason.

“I saw absolute fraud in the research, deception. [The manufacturers] knew from the beginning these things were bad,” she said.

Eventually, she had to quit the job she loved as a news anchor because of the complications. She and her family moved to Texas. For years she couldn’t get a straight answer from doctors, and many were reluctant to take on patients with metal-on-metal hips.

When she heard about a bellwether trial for a hip implant lawsuit, Scott thought she had nothing to lose by attending the trial to get some answers.

“I thought, well, I’ve covered trial before. I’m going to go figure out what the truth is, because the evidence won’t lie,” Scott recalled.

What she found out surprised her. If she hadn’t seen the evidence at trial, she said she would never have known the truth about what she and many others were going through with their implants.

“So I sat in those trials and I saw the worst story I had ever covered in 20 years of news. And I looked around and there’s no reporter beside me. No one’s covering it for any of the news stations or the national networks or anything. And I saw absolute fraud in the research, deception. [The manufacturers] knew from the beginning these things were bad.