Phillip D. Wilson, Jr., MD: A Life Fulfilled

Excerpt

With awe and reverence I note the passing of Philip Wilson, Jr., MD. As with everything in his recent life, he accomplished this with great dignity in the peace and comfort of his beloved home. He was working right until he no longer could on a project which will provide a legacy for all of us who practice total hip replacement. He was completing the 40-year follow-up study of his original series of patients. It was my privilege to be asked to assist him. The contribution of his study will be that his focus was directed at the quality of life that his patients recovered following the surgery. He realized that total hip replacement dramatically improves a patient’s quality of life that can maintain throughout the patient’s lifetime. If the prosthesis fails, the surgery is not a failure because revision surgery can restore and maintain the improved quality of life. His work suggests that need for revision does not imply a failure of the arthroplasty because with revision the original benefit of the primary hip replacement can be restored. …