If you tune into the ‘Discovery Home and Health’ TV channel at 9pm tonight, you will see the miraculous story of 3 sisters who had gastric bypass surgery on the same day at an NHS hospital in February this year and have since lost 22 stone. The sisters, Georgina, Sharon and Pauline Johnson from West Sussex, all had BMIs over 50. Their obesity put them at risk of Diabetes, heart disease and various cancers. Their stories are all different.
The sisters before gastric bypass surgery
Pauline weighed over 20 stone most of her adult life, and states that she was addicted to food. She developed very high blood pressure (hypertension) putting her at great risk of heart attack or stroke – she has now stopped all her blood pressure drugs. She had tried Xenical [Orlistat] (a licensed weight loss drug) 3 years ago but it stopped working after a month, mainly because her “will to eat was stronger than my will to slim down”.
Pauline at present is suffering from hair loss and loose skin following surgery, but still says “I didn’t realise how much weight loss would make my entire world change… now, I never cook junk food. Not only have I lost weight, my son has lost a stone too and is now just right for his height. That was another motivation for me to sort myself out, because I would have been mortified if he’d had to have suffered in the way I did.”
Pauline and her partner are now trying for another baby after years of having no periods – they returned 2 months after the operation! “I have dreamed of having another baby for years but it was impossible when I was so big.”
Sharon identified that food had obesssed the sisters since they were children despite their father being slim and mother only occasionally being overweight. She says “Most of my childhood memories are of food: of cooking cakes with mum, of raiding the fridge when my parents were asleep.” She recalls that she never felt satisfied by a meal, adding that this was one of the reasons she was persuaded by a gastric bypass as it would finally make her feel full after eating. Sharon said the sisters’ surgery was her idea – “Pauline lives opposite a man who’d had it done and lost loads of weight. He inspired me to do it and to persuade my sisters.”
Sharon has recently picked up several infections possibly due to her changed nutritional state but has now come off anti-depressants she had been taking for 16 years and has been given the go-ahead for surgery to remove an inflamed fallopian tube, which couldn’t be carried out previously becuase of her weight.
Georgina, aged 37, was warned at the beginning of 2009 that unless she lost weight quickly she would be dead within 10 years because of the strain the weight was placing on her heart. She has since lost 6st 7lbs and within a month of the gastric bypass took her son to school for the first time in his life (she didn’t have the energy to do it before the weight loss surgery), adding “seeing his smiling face makles all this so worthwhile”. She is now considering returning to her former career as a care worker.
The sisters now - 8 months after gastric bypass surgery
Their story is truly a miracle and demonstrates once again how bariatric surgery procedures such as gastric bypass and gastric band can literally transform peoples’ lives. Vita Clinics helps ‘weight-battled’ people everyday and to find out how we can help you ‘Find life once again’ contact us now.
