Teddy Koukoulis regains his swing with Dr. Berger’s revolutionary knee replacement

For Teddy Koukoulis, golf isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. Golf, a sport built on confidence, precision, and discipline, taught him resilience and integrity. Still, as the years passed, his body struggled to keep up. The culprit? Decades of knee pain dating back to a high school football injury in 1977.

“I had my first knee surgery in high school. They removed my meniscus—something they’d never do today,” Koukoulis recalls. “From 1980 on, I was dealing with knee pain.” Over the years, multiple orthopedic procedures only provided temporary relief. “I kept getting scopes done, but the pain would always return,” he says. “I knew there had to be a better way.”

The Pain Became a Mental Game

Koukoulis wasn’t just physically suffering; the pain was affecting his confidence on the golf course as well. “Golf is all about confidence, and I had so much knee pain that I felt like I could collapse at any moment. I started compensating, swinging more from my right side instead of getting onto my left,” said Koukoulis. As a golfer, he knew that small mechanical adjustments could mean the difference between victory or frustration, but the pain was dictating his swing instead of allowing his skill to prevail.

After years of searching for solutions, Koukoulis discovered Dr. Richard Berger, a renowned orthopedic surgeon at Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH in Chicago. Dr. Berger is a pioneer of minimally invasive knee and hip replacement surgery. His groundbreaking approach preserves muscles, ligaments, and tendons, promoting quicker recovery and less post-surgical pain.

“He kept saying, ‘There’s a better way,’ and that stuck with me,” Koukoulis says. “He wasn’t just performing surgeries—he was improving the entire process.”

A Better Way to Heal: The BEST Experience

Koukoulis went through Dr. Berger’s BEST (Berger Elective Surgery and Telemedicine) Experience, a program designed to streamline the joint replacement process with virtual consultations, pre-surgery guidance, and a seamless recovery plan. “They sent me a detailed notebook on everything—where to stay, what medications to take, what to expect before and after surgery. It gave me confidence that not just Dr. Berger, but his entire team, was invested in my recovery,” he explains.

Three hours after surgery, Koukoulis was already walking. “The physical therapist came into my hospital room and said, ‘Let’s try some stairs.’ I was shocked. I know at least 12 people or more who have had knee replacements, and none of them had an experience like this.”

Dr. Berger’s approach, which minimizes trauma to soft tissue, tendons and ligaments, allows for a significantly faster recovery time. “Patients experience less pain, fewer complications, and are able to return to normal activities much sooner,” says Dr. Berger.

A Game-Changer on the Green

For Koukoulis, the results have been nothing short of remarkable. “I’m hitting the ball farther and crisper than I have in years,” he says. “My swing coach, Joe, showed me some drills I could never do before because my knee wouldn’t allow me to get into the right positions. Now, I can do them pain-free.”

His transformation has been both physical and mental. “Golfers are a weird, confident, egotistical bunch,” he laughs. “We don’t like admitting weakness. But now, I don’t have a weakness.”

“The only thing Teddy has to worry about now is finding a hat big enough to fit his head with his new lease on confidence,” jokes PGA Swing Coach and dear friend Joe Hallett.

The Takeaway: Don’t Wait

Looking back, Koukoulis has one piece of advice for others struggling with knee pain: don’t wait. “If giving up three weeks of your life for surgery and rehab means gaining years of pain-free living, why wouldn’t you do it?” He says. “I found a doctor who believed there was a better way—and he proved it. I did my part, he did his, and now I’m living proof that you don’t have to live in pain.”

For anyone hesitant about joint replacement, Koukoulis offers a simple challenge: “Why give up even one minute of quality life if you don’t have to?”