(somber music playing)

- [Narrator] The mountaintown of Clarksburg,

West Virginia,

seemed an ideal place for Dr. Lou Otenzio,

to raise his family ,

and set up his practice in 1982.

It was small,

and they needed good doctors,

- I did take good care of people,

I really cared about them,

and then knew that I cared,

- -[Narrator] Affectionately called doc O,

Lou embraced his role,

as a small town doctor,

making house calls ,

and working 16 hour days,

while he genuinely caredabout his patients,

something else was driving him.

- Sometimes a little bitof self satisfaction,

and all that, you know,

look what I've done, look,

look how much they love me,

and if at my core I don't love myself,

then I made everyone else to love me,

to make me feel adequate.

- [Narrator] While herelished the admiration,

Lou admits, he too oftenneglected his wife,

and three children.

- When you're home,

you're paying attention to your beeper,

your phone ,

or your running back to the hospital,

the emergency room and,

children hardly knew who I was,

my wife certainly never saw me.

- [Narrator] It went on for years,

as Lou worked,

sometimes to the point of exhaustion,

to meet everyone's expectations,

trying to earn their love.

- I felt like I had to performance,

in such a high level,

beat 10 feet tall, bulletproof

and faster than a speeding locomotive,

and trying to make your patients happy,

you're trying to make thepharmaceutical reps happy,

you're trying to make your family happy,

there was no one other than,

me in this whole deal.

- [Narrator] Then in 1988working late one night,

Lou had an excruciating headache,

but when over thecounter meds didn't help,

he reached for something stronger,

a vidicate example,

that a pharmaceutical rep had left.

- It gave me this tremendous relief,

of pain and suffering,

but also,

gave me this sense of euphoria,

that I could do anything,

And that just grew ,

and grew and grew,

- [Narrator] As did his addiction,

at first, he'd self medicate,

for an extra boost of energy.

- When I felt inadequate,

when I would run out of steam,

drugs filled that gap,

and the other side of that,

is if you think you're Superman,

and you think you can do that,

and control it,

that it won't take over your life.

- [Narrator] Except it did,

within a few years,

he was using daily,

and by the late 90s,

he was taking up to 40 pills a day,

writing fake prescriptions,

to keep them coming.

- You focus on how do I feel?

How do I feel? how I feel?

Do I have any more pills?

Let me go write a prescription,

let me go fill the pharmacies,

let me take four or five of them,

in the parking lot.

- [Narrator] During that time,

Lou's wife realized,

he had a drug problem,

but their marriage already strained,

she took the kids,

and moved to Pittsburgh,

two hours away,

they tried to make it work,

but ultimately divorced,

in the early 2000s,

by now,

even his performance at work was slipping.

- There was pressurecoming in from everywhere,

I'd failed as a husband,

I'd failed as a father,

practice wasn't going well,

and I realized ,

that I could not stop using medication,

couldn't stop using the opiates,

and that was the pattern, I was stuck in,

stuck in it, stuck in.

- [Narrator] Unable to see a way out,

one night in the fall of 2002,

he decided to take the only escape,

he knew.

- I'm going to go in my car,

car in my garage at night,

close the garage door ,

and run the engine,

and it'll all be over.

- [Narrator] But the fumes,

seemed to have no effect.

- I was crying out to God ,

"and God I really didn't know,

or understand,

and God take me out of this mess,

I can't do this anymore,

you've got to do something,

take me out"

but God didn't take me out.

(somber music playing)

- [Narrator] But he says,

God did answer his prayer.

The next day a patient in ICU crashed,

they saved the patient,

but in the chaos,

one nurse got Lou's attention,

her name was Donata.

- She was very calm and serene,

I shared with her a little bit about,

what was going on in my life,

Donata prayed for him ,

and invited him to church,

after a few Sundays,

Lou had a realization.

- I had messed up terribly,

and I needed to be forgiven,

and I asked Donata,

how do I be forgiven?

and she said,

"you just get forgiven,

for just asking,

that's how that works"

I said,

"Jesus, you got to take this,

you've got to take over in my life,

because I surely can't do it on my own,

I sure can't run this thing,

I'm running in the ground,

I'm running myself in the ground,

I'm going to be dead".

- [Narrator] But it wasn't,

until a few weeks later,

he decided ,

to give his life over to Jesus,

and accept his unconditional love,

he confided in a patient,

who was a Christian,

but he hadn't prayed to accept Jesus.

- And he said, well,

let's do that right now,

get down on your knees,

I'll get down with you,

and we'll pray this prayer.

I got up off the floor feeling,

really legitimately 10 feet tall,

and bulletproof ,

but only with only with Jesus,

only with that power,

not what would Jesus do,

It's what has Jesus done?

- [Narrator] With God's strength,

Lou quit using drugs,

he and Donata grew closer,

and married in 2004,

he did lose his medical license,

and served community service ,

for the fraudulent,

prescriptions he wrote,

although eligible ,

to have his license reinstated,

he says God showed him a new purpose.

- I was able to takethat community service,

and turn that into ministry,

to an extent,

he use all this to help someone else.

- [Narrator] He's now a ministry leader,

with 'Celebrate Recovery'

and serves as ,

executive director,

of the Clarksburg mission,

helping those who need shelter,

food and hope in Jesus.

- Doesn't make me sense,

how my life ended up like this,

it only makes sense in the kingdom of God,

you've got to have Jesus Christ,

as your Savior,

or it just doesn't work.