( CNN ) -- Stephen Breyer is known as one of the most active and engaging justices on the Supreme Court . He 's also been known to take a painful spill , every now and then . One such fall -- from the bicycle he was riding Friday afternoon near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington -- landed the associate justice in an ambulance , and eventually at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital , the Supreme Court announced in a press release . It is the third publicly known major bike crash for Breyer in the last two decades . At the hospital , the 74-year-old was diagnosed with a proximal humerus fracture -- the humerus being the upper bone of the arm . He underwent reverse shoulder replacement surgery on Saturday morning . Unlike in a healthy shoulder , where the humerus ends in a ball shape and fits into the shoulder blade to form a shoulder , in reverse shoulder replacement surgery the anatomy is reversed . In other words , a new metal `` ball '' is attached to the shoulder blade , or scapula , and a plastic cup is put at the upper end of the humerus bone . Patients typically leave the hospital after this procedure -- first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2003 -- in two or three days , according to the American Academy of Ortophaedic Surgeons . The Supreme Court said Breyer is expected to head home early next week . It 's not the first time that he 's tumbled off his bike and ended up in a hospital . In 1993 , he had a nasty accident when a car stuck him in Harvard Square while he was on his two-wheeler . He suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs . Then , over Memorial Day weekend in 2011 , Breyer broke his right collarbone after falling off his two-wheeler in Cambridge , Massachusetts , where he has a second home . He 's had bad luck in other ways as well . An intruder armed with a machete robbed Breyer , two guests and his wife -- renowned pediatric psychologist Dr. Joanna Breyer -- while they were vacationing on the Caribbean island of Nevis in February 2012 . Breyer robbed at machete-point during vacation . Three months later , his Washington home was burglarized . CNN 's Bill Mears contributed to this report .
Breyer , early next week , fell off his bike near the Korean War Veterans Memorial . He underwent `` reverse shoulder replacement '' surgery , the American Academy of Ortophaedic Surgeons says . Stephen Breyer is expected to be released from the hospital 74 .