It's not just grandma with a new hip and your uncle with a new knee. More than 2 of every 100 Americans now have an artificial joint, doctors are reporting.

Among those over 50, it's even more common: Five percent have replaced a knee and more than 2 percent, a hip.

“They are remarkable numbers,” said Dr. Daniel J. Berry, chairman of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Roughly 7 million people in the United States are living with a total hip or knee replacement.

He led the first major study to estimate how prevalent these procedures have become, using federal databases on surgeries and life expectancy trends. Results were reported Tuesday at an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons conference in New Orleans.

More than 600,000 knees and about 400,000 hips are replaced in the U.S. each year. But until now, there haven't been good numbers on how many people currently are living with new joints. The number is expected to grow as the population ages, raising questions about cost, how long the new parts will last, and how best to replace the replacements as they wear out over time.

Why the boom?

“People are aware that they're a success” and are less willing to put up with painful joints, Berry said.

The term “replacement” is a little misleading, said Dr. Joshua Jacobs, chairman of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and president of the orthopedic surgery association. What's replaced is the surface of a joint after cartilage has worn away, leaving bone rubbing against bone and causing pain and less mobility.

In a replacement operation, the ends of bones are removed or resurfaced and replaced with plastic, ceramic or metal materials.

Arthritis is the main reason for these operations, followed by obesity, which adds stress on knees and hips. Baby boomers are wearing out joints by playing sports and doing other activities to avoid obesity. Knee replacement surgeries have more than tripled in the 45-to-64 age group over the last decade and nearly half of hip replacements now are in people under 65, federal numbers show.

“It's not for anybody who has pain in the joint,” Berry warned. Surgery won't help people with pain and stiffness from arthritis but whose joints are not damaged, said Berry, who gets royalties from certain hip and knee implants.

Surgery also is not for people who haven't first tried exercise, medicines and weight loss, Jacobs said.

But for a growing number of people, it can mean a big improvement in quality of life. Mary Ann Tuft, 79, who owns an executive search firm, said her right knee was painful for a decade before she had it replaced in 2005. 

“I live in downtown Chicago, take a lot of walks along the beach. I could barely walk a block” by the time the operation was done, she said. “I'm very social, but I found going to cocktail receptions where you had to stand a long time, I would just avoid them.”

After the operation, “I felt better pretty much right from the beginning,” she said. “You don't even know you have it in there, which is amazing.”

Cynthia Brabbit, a dental hygienist from Winona, Minn., had hip replacement in 2007 when she was 52. She developed hip problems in her 20s that distorted her gait and even caused one leg to grow longer than the other.

“I was running marathons, doing half marathons, playing tennis,” but the problem grew so bad she couldn't even walk more than half a mile, she said.

“Now I can walk an hour a day,” and is training for a 100-mile bike ride this summer, she said. “What a world of difference.”

Not all patients have fared as well, though. Implant recalls and big patient lawsuits show the danger when a device is flawed.

Last June, Stryker Corp. recalled certain hip implant products because of corrosion and other problems. Last month, another device maker, Biomet, agreed to pay at least $200,000 each to hundreds of people who received artificial hips that were later replaced.  

And in November, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle roughly 8,000 patients' lawsuits over an all-metal hip implant it pulled from the market in 2010. 

Even good implants can fail over time -- about 1 percent or fewer fail each year. After 10 years, more than 90 percent of them are still functioning, Jacobs and Berry said.

It costs about $20,000 for a knee or hip replacement, but a recent study suggests they save more, because they reduce lost work days and improve mobility.

“There's a cost for not doing the procedure,” Jacobs said.

To help a joint replacement succeed and last, doctors recommend doing physical therapy to strengthen bones, muscles and the new joint. Other tips include maintaining a healthy weight, cross training so you don't overdo one type of activity or sport, spending more time warming up and letting muscles and joints recover between workouts.

The only people accused in the Philadelphia building collapse that left six people dead in a neighboring thrift store were formally arraigned this morning.

Backhoe operator Sean Benschop, a.k.a. Kary Roberts, and contractor Griffin Campbell were arraigned Tuesday in Common Pleas court. The hearing was mostly procedural as attorneys exchanged paperwork.

Benschop and Campbell are implicated in the June collapse that left six dead and 13 more hurt inside a Salvation Army store at 22nd and Market Streets in Center City.

Benschop, 43, and Campbell, 49, each face dozens of counts including third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, risking catastrophe, aggravated assault and conspiracy. Both have remained behind bars unable to post bail.

Authorities say Benschop was operating the excavator at the site of a building demolition at 2136 Market Street on the morning of June 5, 2013 when the building's western wall collapsed. The four-story brick wall was free-standing and had not been braced using demolition equipment.

• READ MORE of NBC10.com's EXTENSIVE coverage of the PHILADELPHIA BUILDING COLLAPSE

The debris from the wall crushed the one-story thrift shop next door, burying shoppers and store clerks alive.

The most severely injured person, Mariya Plekan, had both legs amputated at the hips after being pinned beneath the brick, steel and glass debris for more than 12 hours. She spent five months in the hospital.

Benschop was arrested shortly after the collapse and underwent drug and alcohol tests. Police said those tests came up positive for prescription painkiller and marijuana use. Benschop, however, did have a broken arm, for which he said the painkillers were being used.

He and his family have maintained Benschop's innocence during the entire ordeal. His attorney, Daine Grey, told NBC10 Philadelphia in September 2013 that he believed evidence would vindicate his client.

Several investigations were launched in the wake of the collapse including the convening of a grand jury. The grand jury came back with their findings in November 2013 and along with that presentment, came the charges against Campbell.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said the building was not properly demolished and that those involved ignored safety advice.

A grand jury investigation, according to Williams, "places Campbell at the center of culpability." Williams said that instead of opting for the safest way to dismantle the building, Campbell opted for the most profitable way, which included salvaging some of the dismantled parts.

Williams said numerous demolition and construction experts testified before the grand jury, explaining that there was one appropriate way to take the building down.

"The building should have been taken down hand by hand, piece by piece, brick by brick," Williams said.

Instead of taking the building apart from the outside, Campbell removed key structural parts of the building from inside first, using heavy machinery, according to Williams.

"He therefore chose to maximize his profits by first deciding to remove the joists, which were valuable for his resale." That left the walls without support, Williams said.

On the night before the collapse, Plato Marinakos, an architect and the project's expeditor, allegedly warned Campbell that the unbraced wall could collapse at any time. According to Williams, Campbell promised that night to have the part of the wall that towered above thrift store taken down, brick-by-brick. The work was started, but never finished. On the morning of the collapse, about an hour before the walls crumbled, Campbell called Marinakos and told him the freestanding part of the wall was safely removed.

Marinakos, a key witness for prosecutors in their case against Benschop and Campbell, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.

The collapse happened at 10:41 a.m. Four minutes later, Campbell began repeatedly calling Marinakos. When Marinakos arrived on the scene, Campbell admitted to him that the wall wasn't taken down brick by brick, according to the grand jury presentment.

Jay Bryan, the father of Anne Bryan, who was killed in the collapse, told NBC10 he hoped the ongoing grand jury investigation would lead to more results.

"We're grateful that it sounds like the investigation is ongoing," Bryan said. "We hope that everyone will be held accountable from bottom to top."

Pretrial conferences for Benschop and Campbell are set for next month.

Police are searching for a man who grabbed a woman and sexually assaulted her in the hallway of an apartment building in Hoboken, N.J. as she was heading home.

Prosecutors say the man attacked the woman, described as being in her 30s, in the hallway of a building near Monroe and First streets at around 1:15 a.m. Saturday.

The man then ran off in an unknown direction.

Investigators released a sketch of the suspect (see above). He is described as being in his late 30s to early 40s.

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to contact the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Special Victims Unit at 201-915-1234.

A popular personal lubricant brand has been bought.

English consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser Group signed a definitive agreement Monday to acquire the global rights to the K-Y personal lubricant brand from McNeil-PPC Inc.

McNeil, of Fort Washington, Pa., is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).

Financial terms of the deal, expected to close in mid-2014, were not disclosed. The companies said no employees will be changing companies because of the transaction.

K-Y started as a prescription medical product in 1917, then switched to an over-the-counter product in 1980. Read more about this story on PBJ.com.

For more breaking business news go to PBJ.com

Philadelphia’s Drexel University was put on alert Tuesday morning after a college sophomore died suddenly from a suspected case of meningitis.

Stephanie Ross’ sorority sisters in Phi Mu (Beta Tau) found the mechanical engineering major unresponsive Monday in her sorority house along Powelton Avenue, according to an official statement from Drexel.

Ross was rushed to the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where she died.

“The Drexel community’s thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends,” said Drexel’s statement.

Though no official cause of death was given, Drexel said they are working with city health officials under the assumption that the death was due to meningitis.

City health officials say they suspect Ross' death may have been caused by the same Meningitis B strain that impacted Princeton University in the fall. While most colleges require meningitis vaccinations for students, the rare "serogroup B" that hit Princeton is not covered by American vaccines.

After 8 meningitis B infections at Princeton, officials brought in a European version of the vaccine.

Drexel University officials are giving antibiotics to those closest to Ross.

Meningitis symptoms are similar to flu-like symptoms including nausea, vomiting, and light sensitivity. Other symptoms like confusion and a stiff neck could also be a sign of meningitis.

• CDC's signs of meningitis

Any students feeling meningitis-like symptoms are asked to contact the Student Health Center at 215-220-4700.

The university offered prophylactic antibiotics at the student health center on Market Street for any students who were in close contact with Ross.

Ross' death hit Drexel's Greek Life community hard. An email announcing her death was first shared through a Greek Life email chain shortly after 11 p.m. Monday.

Our deepest condolences and prayers are with Stephanie Ross's family, friends, and the sisters of @PhiMuDrexel tonight.

— Drexel Phi Psi (@duphipsi) March 11, 2014

Ross' sorority big sister Kris Trina turned to Facebook to remember her friend.

"I don't have any words to describe what I am feeling right now, but know that I love you and I hope that you are in heaven filled with cats and all of the other weird things that we love."

Ross graduated from Upper St. Clair High School outside Pittsburgh where she played softball.

A school bus crashed along a South Jersey road this morning landing a handful of students and their bus driver in the hospital.

The bus collided with a car along Berlin Cross Keys Road near where the road crosses under the Atlantic City Expressway in Gloucester Township, Camden County around 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Students from Camden County Technical Schools were on the bus at the time, according to Gloucester Township Police.

Six of those students and the bus driver -- an employee of T&L Bus Service in Gibbsboro, N.J. -- suffered minor injuries. Five of those students and the driver were hospitalized for evaluation, according to investigators.

Police closed one lane of the road for about 45 minutes as they investigated.

No official word was given on a cause and no one was immediately charged.

A woman is fighting for her life after a hit-and-run in North Philadelphia.

Police say the 48-year-old woman was on 21st and Susquehanna Avenue  on Tuesday around 4:20 pm. when she was struck by a vehicle which fled the scene.

She was taken to Temple University Hospital where she is in critical condition.

Police have not yet released a description of the hit-and-run vehicle.

Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.

Also on NBC10.com:

• Sketch Released of Alleged Hit-and-Run Driver
• Suspects Flee Police After Crashing Into Car

A man was shot and killed near La Salle University on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old man was on Olney Avenue and Uber Street shortly before 4 p.m. on Tuesday when an unidentified gunman opened fire.

The man was struck once in the stomach. He was taken to Einstein Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

No arrests have been made. Police have not yet released the victim’s identity or information on any suspects.

While the shooting occured near the La Salle University campus, police confirmed that the victim was not a student at the school.

Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.

Also on NBC10.com:

• Woman Charged in Grandfather's Stabbing Death
  
• Shots Fired Near Memorial for Club Shooting Victim

Nearly a week after a New Jersey blast killed a woman, injured seven workers and left dozens of people homeless, the Mayor of Ewing Township released raw audio of the 911 calls that were made moments after the explosion.

• LISTEN: RAW AUDIO: EWING TOWNSHIP 911 CALLS

On March 4, workers with Henkels & McCoy, a private contractor, were replacing electric service to a home in a Ewing Township townhouse complex on Crockett Lane. Officials with Public Service Electric & Gas say the workers accidentally struck and damaged a gas line.

According to Ewing Township Mayor Bert Steinmann, the workers called PSE&G officials to report that they damaged the gas line. However, Steinmann claims the workers never called 911.

"Had that 911 come in at the time that the gas line was hit and if we responded, some of the response may have been a little different," Steinmann said.

About an hour after the line was struck, "ignition" occurred. The blast destroyed the home, killed the homeowner, 62-year-old Linda Cerritelli, injured seven utility workers and damaged more than 50 other houses.

Steinmann believes the workers spoke with Cerritelli minutes before the explosion.

"Whether they told her to go back in the house or get out of the house, that's still not clear," Steinmann said.

On Monday, Steinmann released audio of the initial 911 calls that were made moments after the explosion. During the calls, dozens of terrified residents report the blast to a 911 dispatcher.

"There's a fire!" said a woman during one of the first calls, around 12:50 p.m. "There's a gas company and oh my gosh, the house! There are lots of flames!"

The 911 operator repeatedly tried to calm the frantic callers down, assuring them that rescue units and police officers were on the way.

"Please hurry!" pleaded one man. "Oh my God, it blew up a house!"

The seven people injured in the blast were all PSE&G workers. Officials said none of their injuries were life-threatening.

Officials say 28 people remain displaced by the explosion. According to Steinmann, PSE&G contributed $100,000 to a relief fund to help them.

On Tuesday, PSE&G released a statement addressing the newly released audio.

"This is a tragedy from which we all will learn many lessons," the statement says. "We don't want to get ahead of the investigation so we won't be commenting further at this time."

NBC10 also reached out to a Henkels & McCoy spokesperson. The spokesperson claimed that a worker contacted a supervisor who then called PSE&G. The spokesperson did not state however whether or not the worker called 911 and claimed the company was looking into whether he followed proper protocol.

While Steinmann claimed that none of the workers called 911, last Friday he also told NBC10 that a criminal investigation in the blast was complete and that no charges would be filed against Henkels & McCoy.

"They did rule out any criminal action at all," said Steinmann on Friday. "At this particular point in time it was just an accident. Henkels and McCoy inadvertently hit this particular line. They're still investigating why it happened but there's no criminality involved there at all."

Henkels and McCoy had been fined more than $100,000 by safety regulators for problems at two other sites, but the utility said Wednesday it never had any problems with the construction firm.

• WATCH: Mom, Kids Run for Safety After Explosion

The Blue Bell, Pa.-based company was cited last year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violations involving signaling, warning signs and protection of workers during excavations. The company is contesting the fines.

• WATCH: Brother of Injured Gas Worker Describes Disaster

At a news conference last Wednesday, a PSE&G director of gas construction, Mike Gaffney, expressed confidence in its contractor. He said the utility had a long-standing relationship with the firm, that it had done good work for the utility and that there had been no prior problems.

• WATCH Bryan Gentry's Raw Video of Explosion Scene

Records provided by the OSHA show that Henkels & McCoy was fined $70,000 in March 2013 for safety violations at a site in Bayonne and $42,000 for violations in Neptune in August.

The company said it was cooperating fully in the Ewing investigation.

"We are deeply saddened at the loss of life,'' company spokesman Dave Lamoreaux said. "Obviously this is a significant event for Henkels & McCoy as well. We are a 90-year-old company that prides itself on doing good, solid work in the community, and we will support the investigation in any way we can.''

Five people are recovering after police say an elderly man crashed his Black Cadillac into a shoe store in Tredyffrin Township on Tuesday.

The 75-year-old man was driving on East Swedesboro Road when investigators say he lost control and crashed into the Famous Footwear store.

Five people were inside the store at the time. Police say the driver, as well as four people inside the store, were injured. Police have not yet revealed the driver’s condition. However, he was taken into custody for suspected DUI.

As for the remaining victims, one person was seriously hurt while the other three suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Be sure to watch NBC10 News Tonight at 11 for more details on this developing story.
 

Hours after an explosion turned part of the South Fork development in Ewing Township, N.J. into a war zone, Terry Myers was standing among the debris, capturing the scene. But he wasn’t using a camera, rather a laser to record every inch of the ruins.

“It was from the standpoint of let’s collect, let’s memorialize if you will, that scene and then down the road if somebody wants to know ‘Where did this piece of debris wind up? Or ‘Where was this excavation? Or ‘Where was this machinery?’, we have that all documented,” he said.

A forensic investigator with Abington, Pa.-based DJS Associates, Myers is frequently one of the first people on the scene of tragic events like the March 4 blast that killed a homeowner and injured seven utility workers.

Government agencies, insurance companies and defense attorneys from across the country deputize DJS to preserve the evidence left behind incidents ranging from fatal car crashes to slips and falls to building collapses like last summer’s deadly failure along Market Street in Philadelphia.

A staff of engineers take the data collected by investigators like Myers, using physics and that digitized physical evidence, to determine how an incident happened, says Steven Schorr, the company’s president.

“The fact of the matter is that the foundation of any reconstruction, whether it’s the reconstruction of how a building collapsed, whether it’s the reconstruction of a traffic accident, it all begins with the physical evidence that’s left,” he said. “If you can figure out how it happened, then the whys follow that.”

The 53-year-old firm, founded by Schorr’s father in 1961, has even investigated how bugs wound up inside a candy bar.

When the expertise needed doesn’t fit into the in-house team’s wheelhouse, Schorr says they bring in outside experts. DJS is currently having a chemist analyze the material used in a popular exercise band, which has reportedly resulted in serious burns on a number of wearers.

A LASER FOCUS

The DJS team uses a sophisticated set of tools to take a snapshot, with great detail, of the physical evidence at the scene.

What in the past would be done with a surveyor’s wheel and level, is now a laser imaging system that maps a scene -- capturing tire tracks, trees, telephone poles and any other important evidence in a matter of minutes any time day or night.

“The entire machine rotates, and while it’s rotating, the laser is spinning. And while it’s spinning, it’s collecting thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of points a second,” Myers said. “That laser scanner allows me to bring that site, on a laptop, back into the office so [the engineers] can analyze the physical evidence.”

These digital composites, which the firm has been creating since 2003, are then used in court to demonstrate how an accident happened, Schorr says. A combination of these maps, which resemble heat imaging, superimposed photographs and Google maps can be packaged together to recreate an incident for the judge and jury.

“So visually, if I can show them ‘Here’s our scan. Here’s how well our scan matches up to the Google Earth. Our scan is three-dimensions, let’s get in there and see the wires, see the mailbox, see the telephone pole’ and just those things…brings understanding,” Schorr said.

THINGS AREN’T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM

The DJS folks say the technology is no replacement for the work done by its engineers and investigators, but the high-resolution imaging helps to provide the clearest picture possible.

Schorr recalled a recent case, which he was unable to provide more detail about due to client restrictions, where a girl was struck and killed along a New Jersey roadway.

He said the girl’s family was convinced she was walking on the shoulder of the road when hit. However, Schorr said, the data collected at the scene helped to determine that just wasn’t the case.

“The physical evidence on the roadway established very clearly that the only way that the pedestrian could have gotten to her point of rest…was if she was in the middle of the roadway at the time. Isaac Newton would be spinning in his grave if someone came to say she was walking on the shoulder at the time,” he said. “It would have been very nice to make them feel better, but the physical evidence said otherwise."

NOT JUST TRAGEDY

While there are plenty of high-profile incidents that result in the loss of life, limb or physical harm, DJS has also begun to use its scanning tools for less macabre projects.

Construction companies and architects have tasked the firm to record phases of the building process. Schorr says the contractors want proof that walls are in the correct place and piping was done correctly.

Historic preservation is another area where the technology has been utilized. DJS teamed up with preservation organization CyArk to map, digitize and preserve the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Beth Sholom Synagogue in Cheltenham, Pa. in 2012.

The Lincoln Memorial on The National Mall is the current project. Over two days, crews took 70 scans and countless high-resolution photographs of the monument from many angles – while it remained open to the public.

“While we were doing our work, people are milling around and the scanner scans those people. But we scanned from so many different vantage points that we ultimately get those points on the pillars, on the statues that you’re looking for because we have that overlap there,” Myers said.

A large scale job, DJS will be heading back down to Washington, D.C. in the coming weeks to finish scanning in the memorial – including its large basement, which most people don’t know even exists.

“Down in the basement of the Lincoln Memorial, they actually have things written on some of the pillars. The builders actually drew cartoons and they have them covered in Plexiglas. At one point, they said they used to allow the public down there, but they don’t let people down there anymore,” Schorr said.

The finished scans, overlaid with the high-definition images, which DJS provides to CyArk free of charge, will then be placed online, just like Beth Shalom, for people all around the world to virtually explore.

“We’re very excited about finishing up that project and if everything goes well, we’ll hopefully be joining them on other projects there on the Mall,” Schorr said.

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

Police say seven men were taken into custody in connection to a fatal shooting that led to a barricade situation in the Logan section of the city.

Investigators say two men were shot on the 1300 block of Ruscomb Street early Tuesday evening. Sources told NBC10 that an AK-47 was used in the shooting.

One victim was later pronounced dead at the hospital while the other is in stable condition.

Police say several suspects in the shooting ran inside a nearby home, leading to a barricade situation.

SWAT Team officers arrived at the front of the house around 6:30 p.m.

Shortly before 7 p.m., SkyForce10 showed four people step out of the house as the officers led them away to safety.

Around 7:30 p.m., SkyForce10 captured several men walking outside of the home with their hands raised. Police say seven men in all were taken into custody. Investigators also removed three dogs from the home and recovered several weapons, according to police.

Be sure to watch NBC10 News Tonight at 11 for more details on this developing story.
 

When Brandi Miles and her father found “Fudgey” roaming the streets several years ago, they immediately made the cat a part of their family. 

“We’ve had him since he was a baby,” Miles said. “Everybody in the neighborhood loved the cat.”

It’s that family bond that made their gruesome discovery Tuesday morning all the more devastating. Miles’ father found his beloved pet dead and hanging on the fence in the backyard of his Germantown home with a rope wrapped around his neck.

The family immediately contacted the Pennsylvania SPCA who launched an investigation. Their investigation led them to Miles’ neighbor, Domingo Vargas, the owner of a local hair salon.

Vargas told NBC10 that the entire ordeal was an accident and that he didn’t mean to kill the cat.

“I’m very sorry,” Vargas told NBC10. “I never tied it intentionally.”

Vargas told officials he found the 8-year-old cat Tuesday morning and realized it belonged to his neighbor. He claims he took the cat to his neighbor’s home and knocked on the door but realized no one was home. Vargas then says he took a cord and tied the cat to his neighbor’s fence, unintentionally killing him.

Vargas insists it was an accident and apologized to the owner. Miles isn’t buying his explanation however.

“It seems odd to me,” she said. “You took away a member of our family. I hope you pay for what you did.”

Vargas was cited with animal cruelty, which carries a $750 fine, but he wasn’t charged. SPCA officials say they don't have any evidence that he killed the cat intentionally. 

Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.