An elderly man with a life threatening infection

As a GP doing regular shifts in the emergency department of the local hospital, you are often asked for your advice by the junior hospital staff. One day a new intern asked politely if you could help him with a patient who had been sent in by the GP with a possible infected hip replacement four months after a revision. Over the last week, the 78-year-old retired dentist had noted fevers and increasing stiffness of his hip, and had been unable to attend his rehabilitation appointment.