THE first-ever laparoscopic gastric bypass to be done in Jamaica is scheduled for Tuesday at the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston. The patient, who requested to be identified by the moniker Sandy, told the Jamaica Observer in an interview Thursday that she is nervous, but is looking forward to finally seeing the changes in her weight for which she has yearned for some time.

Sandy is 44 years old and now weighs 260 pounds, a weight she said she has maintained for about a year and a half. Despite going to the gym and having also enlisted the help of a personal trainer, she is yet to see real results.

“I am very active. I go to the gym like five, sometimes six times per week, I have a personal trainer,” Sandy said. “I am not gaining any weight, I am just not losing any… No matter how much of the healthy eating I do, the vegetable, the protein, cut out the fried food, cut out the sweets, nothing works.”

Consultant general, laparoscopic and obesity surgeon Dr Alfred Dawes told the Sunday Observer last Friday that the gastric bypass is a bariatric procedure, which essentially manipulates the stomach in terms of reducing the size and the route that the food takes while it is being absorbed, in order to achieve weight loss.

“In this case we have a patient who is obese, who has tried to lose weight by conventional means – dieting, exercise — but has had resistance or had little success. And so we are offering her the surgery because she has comorbidities, in terms of high blood pressure and is pre-diabetic,” Dr Dawes explained.

He said that the surgery will not only help her with weight loss but also as it relates to regulating the other disease, since it could decrease the need for medication or may even allow her to come off medication completely.

Dr Dawes said that the necessary testing and consultations have been done and all is set for the laparoscopic gastric bypass.

In this particular procedure, instead of making a traditional, big cut down the middle of the abdomen, surgical instruments will be inserted through small incisions, with a camera inside the abdomen, and the patient will be operated on while looking at the camera on a video monitor.

For surgeries done laparoscopically, the obesity surgeon explained that the pain is less, so too is the recovery time, and there are far fewer complications. However, as with any surgical procedure, there are risks involved, two of which include bleeding and infection.

Asked whether this particular procedure is a last resort for people with weight loss challenges Dr Dawes said that it used to be, but more and more it is being used as a form of therapy in treating chronic non-communicable diseases.

“In terms of weight management, bariatric surgery is the only method of weight loss with durable results… (With) lifestyle and dietary changes over the course of 10 years, we only have a 10 per cent success rate, but bariatric surgery has an 85 per cent success rate,” Dr Dawes told the Sunday Observer, adding that people are now recognising the value of the bariatric procedure.

Sandy told the Sunday Observer that she is nervous ahead of the procedure.

“I think I have got so nervous that my blood pressure has been elevated and the doctor had to put me on blood pressure tablets, which I have never taken in my entire life… Because I have never had high blood pressure before, he (has) attributed it to being anxious about the whole procedure and the whole being put to sleep thing,” shared Sandy. “That is the part am scared of most of all.”

But how did she get here?

“Too many struggles over the years with weight, I have tried every single weight loss thing that you can imagine, some of them work and then the minute you get off it you’re right back to where you were or even more,” Sandy told the Sunday Observer. “So when this opportunity presented itself, you know I said ‘okay, this has got to work and this is supposed to be the most extreme that there is so this is supposed to work’.”

She said that dieting is not her problem, but controlling her portion size is. She believes that this surgery will help in this regard.

“For one, it will control my eating because I tend to overeat at times… So just the whole portion control aspect of it,” said Sandy, who added that knowing she cannot eat more than a particular amount at any one time will help.

After her surgery, Dr Dawes said that the patient will have to retrain herself to eat smaller portions.

“They are going to have discomfort if they try to eat too much at once, and that aids with weight loss. They will have to take vitamins as well as increase intake of water throughout the day,” explained Dr Dawes.

A procedure that could cost between US$15,000 and US$25,000 internationally, it will be done at a significantly reduced cost because Dr Alcides Jose Branco Filho from Curitiba, Brazil, who will be working with local surgeons on Tuesday, is coming in for free and the local doctors are also donating their time. The hospital is giving a subsidised rate for the procedure itself.

Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Associates Hospital Dr Michael Banbury told the Sunday Observer that he is excited to be having the procedure done at the institution especially in light of the prevalence of obesity which is driving the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

A total of three patients stand to benefit from the advanced laparoscopic procedures to be done on Tuesday. However, only Sandy will be doing the first-ever laparoscopic gastric bypass.

“This initiative is allowing local doctors to get exposure as well as allowing patients, who would not otherwise be able to afford to have the procedure done privately, to get it done at an affordable rate,” said Dr Dawes.

In the meantime, Dr Alcides is expected to be the guest speaker at the Medical Associates Hospital inaugural Jamaica Advanced Laparoscopic Conference, the opening ceremony for which is set for tomorrow at the Knutsford Court Hotel, starting at 6:00 pm.