By WOM Editor Grace Moredock



The imagery of fat people around the world evokes fat jokes, name-calling, and doctors blaming every medical problem a fat person has on their weight, even before performing necessary tests. Even after making the diagnosis, many physicians urge their large patients to consider weight loss surgery (WLS). They tell you that there are some risks with WLS, as with all other surgeries, but what they do not tell their patients is the numbers of people that die due to WLS, either during or afterwards, due to complications.

The true statistics are unknown because deaths caused by WLS are often underreported or misdiagnosed. Neither do they explain the innumerable negative consequences that accompany WLS. They do not bother to tell their patients that virtually all WLS patients will develop eating-disordered behaviors, as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) refers to gastric bypass procedures as "induced bulimia." Many WLS patients suffer emotional problems due to years of prolonged problems following WLS.

In researching this article, I talked to several WLS patients, one who became so emotional that she could not continue the interview. She asked me not to use her name in the article because her family does not know how she emotionally distraught she is due the side effects of WLS. She had her gastric by-pass in 1998 when she weighed in at just over 600 pounds. She felt that she had exhausted all other avenues to weight lose and thought WLS was the way to loose weight and become a more productive member of society. Following the surgery, she was extremely sick and was in and out of the hospital four times because she could not keep anything on her stomach and becoming dehydrated.

Over 18 months, she lost 200 pounds and she believed life was great, although she still had weekly episodes of throwing up. Her weight never dropped below 410 pounds and in 2000, she started to slowly gain weight. Today, she weighs 550 pounds. She takes two different anti-depressants, continues to have problems throwing up, and several times a year has to have intravenous iron because her body does not absorb iron normally anymore. Doctors have approached her about having WLS again and she has considered it, but she believes she is too sick and believes she would die if she were to have the surgery again.

"Besides, it didn't work the first time and just about everyone I know that has had any type of WLS has gained all their weight back plus some," she said. "So why suffer through this again?"