[Music playing]

[Text on screen: Brian Lewis
Patient]

Brian Lewis: For the last two and a half years, I've been on crutches or some kind of walking aid and I went from hiking 10 to 15 miles a day to being happy to make it from my chair to the kitchen and back. I described it as hot-jagged metal being run up through your leg or up through your hip. Worst case scenario, which was a scary thing, was losing my hip, the not knowing if you're ever going to get rid of it or if that's, am I stuck with that for the rest of my life.

[Text on screen: Jennie Lewis
Patient's wife]

Jennie Lewis: We had complications and just weren't getting answers at facilities that were close to us. So I did some extensive researching and found that Ohio State had one of the leading programs in the country, and that just opened the door to a level of care that I never thought we could find.

[Text on screen: Douglas Chonko, DO
Orthopedic Surgeon
Director of Musculoskeletal Infection and Periprosthetic Joint Infection Program]

Douglas Chonko, DO: Brian certainly came to us with a chronic infection. His pain was really substantial because not only did he have an infection, but his femoral stem was loose as well. So he was getting pain from two sources. The longer that the infection is there, the more difficult it is to get rid of it. Infections can then get into other parts of their body and into their bloodstream. So I knew he needed a revision of his hip replacement.

Brian Lewis: He spoke at a level that I could understand. He didn't talk down to me. He didn't talk over my head. He talked to me like a person.

Jennie Lewis: Just, it's those little details that when you're going through a very dark time, like we did, that just add up to mean a lot.

Douglas Chonko, DO: With an infection such as Brian's case, we'll put an antibiotic spacer in there and they deliver high doses of antibiotics that can kill the infection right at the site of the infection, which is his hip. He had a great success. We saw right away that his incision had healed well. He felt much better. What really drives me is the ability to make these patients happy, to see Brian come walking in without an aid, without the need for a walker or a cane. You could see the smile on his face today of both him and his wife.

Jennie Lewis: I can't put it into words. How do you put into words someone that I feel saved my husband's life, gave him a quality of life where he had none.

[Text on screen: Ohio State Health & Discovery
For more information, visit:
go.osu.edu/PJI]

[Music fades]