Dwayne’s Fight from Septic infections & 4 TKR Surgeries

Hi, I’m Dwayne Oblender Weimer. Thank you for taking a moment to read and help support my GoFundMe campaign. I’d have to say that March came in like a lamb, but definitely left like a lion as you are about to see in the coming story, which is actual real life, and I still have to shake my head that I didn’t lose my right leg.

On March 18th, 2024, I was transported to the BB Hospital located in Lewis, Delaware, where I was barely awake and had no idea what was going on. My BF Mikey Denofrio came to visit me, and I'm glad he had a key to get in because he found me unconscious and in severe pain. I can barely remember being in the emergency room, and I saw them removing the infection from my right leg, where I had a knee replacement in 2018 (the original replacement was in 2016). Once the emergency room was able to get me stable, they rushed me to the operating room where Dr. Cameron Yau used his talents to remove as much infection from the knee as possible. When I was in recovery, he came and saw me and told me I was fortunate enough to be there because I was within an hour of losing my right leg. The septic infection had worked its way through my right knee and into the tibia and femur. What started as a staphylococcus infection went septic and brought me to the verge of losing my right leg to sepsis. If needed to keep the infection from spreading through the rest of my leg, he would have made the tough choice of needing to amputate my right leg from above the knee down. I was unaware that I had a staphylococcus infection in my bloodstream that actually went septic, causing me to have a third knee revision surgery to remove the infection. I was on an every eight-hour infusion PICC line at home for high doses of antibiotics, and after six weeks, I went on oral meds and was still doing antibiotics at about 1800 mg twice a day. Oh wait, it ain’t over…

In July 2024, during the last two weeks of the month, I had a resurgence of the septic infection in my right knee. The pain was so intense I begged my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Yau, to amputate my leg! He made the difficult decision to refer me to Dr. Nazarian of The Rothman Institute, who, after a 15-minute consult appointment, immediately rushed me to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where I was being scheduled to have my fourth total revision to remove the entire device from the tibia, femur, and knee. I once again had to do another PICC line infusion of antibiotics for six weeks with different antibiotics so that my body would not fight it off. I am now currently on 1800 mg of oral antibiotics to keep the infection away. Taking the time to tell my story and reach out for any help that would be out there for me financially is a hard pill to swallow, lol, but very much needed since I don’t qualify for any benefits through the state of Delaware, as well as I haven’t had a state paycheck since August 2024. I am extremely grateful to my father, Jere Myers, and Lako Myers for helping get healthcare together for me during this time, as well as Michael Denofrio, who took the time to do my infusions for me every eight hours, three times a day, as well as allowing me to stay in his home. Let’s not forget he was my driver and para transport, lol. I continue to recover. Even with good insurance, I do still have out-of-pocket expenses, as well as car insurance, two storage facilities that I’m trying to empty out, and helping my best friend Mikey with household expenses. I’m hoping that whoever reads this feels in their heart a way to help in some way and never thought I would ever be to the point that I would need to do this, but the world is filled with good people doing good things for each other. Thankful to my BF Mikey.