Body work complete; motor strong

Don Davidson plays golf a couple of times a week, which is amazing for an 82-year-old guy. What's even more amazing is that he does it with five major artificial joints.

"I'm the bionic man," said Davidson, a retired Realtor who lives on Daniel Island. "I've had both knees replaced, both shoulders replaced and a hip replaced."

Count them, that's five replacement parts and he's still going strong, breaking 100 and hoping to shoot his age one day.

"I don't know anybody who's had three replacements," he said with a laugh. "I guess I'm just a lucky guy to be able to walk around and talk about it."

That's because Davidson knows what life would have been like if modern medicine hadn't allowed him to fix all the things that went wrong with him.

"I'm as good as new now," he said. "I try to take care of myself. I really can't complain."

Pain point

A native of Harrisburg, Pa., Davidson played college football in the late 1940s for Bucknell. The former offensive tackle and defensive end said his knees took a beating, but it was his very last game that really did him in.

"Last game, senior year, my left knee just got killed," he said. "But back then the school didn't care and we didn't have all the doctors like they do now. I just went ahead and graduated and went to work."

His career with Raybestos products took him to St. Louis and Detroit before the asbestos fallout in the late 1970s left him jobless. That's when he came to Charleston to start over in real estate.

"My knees bothered me back then, but not enough to get anything done about it. The real pain started in my hip. Like most people, I tried to put it off, but when the pain gets bad enough, surgery becomes an easy decision."

So in 1988 he had his right hip replaced.

That was followed in 2005 with an operation to replace both knees at the same time.

Warranty work

If that weren't bad enough, Davidson continued to play racquetball — and injured his shoulders.

"I thought I was a tough guy and kept running into the wall," he said. "After a while I couldn't lift my arms to put a shirt on."

So he had his right shoulder replaced in 2006, followed by his left shoulder in 2007. All his operations were done at Roper St. Francis Hospital.

Now, if you see Davidson playing golf with his buddies at Charleston National, Wild Dunes or Dunes West, you'll be amazed at how well he gets around, considering.

"What a horror story, huh?" said Davidson, who estimates his surgeries cost a half-million dollars. "I'm sure glad I had health insurance. Without all these excellent doctors, I'd be dead.

"Truth is, I have to be careful about my balance these days. But now the only thing I'm really worried about is the warranty on all these parts."