Surgery Presents Weight Loss Option
Gastric Bypass Shrinks Stomach
POSTED: 4:21 p.m. PST November 20, 2001
SAN DIEGO -- A 90-minute operation can shrink the bodies of severely obese men and women, and 10News followed one young San Diego woman's journey to find her thinner self.
"I'm an active, healthy, thin person living inside this big body, and I don't like it," Amy Suter said.
Suter said that she feels like a prisoner inside her body, and that for the last 10 years, the pounds have been piling up.
As a high school freshman, Suter weighed 115 pounds. As a senior, she was up to 150. And in college, "I gained the freshman 60," she said laughing.
Doctors said that Suter's family has a genetic connection to obesity.
"We are predisposed to be overweight, I really believe," Suter's mother, Sandra Suter, said.
Amy Suter has tried all sorts of diets in an attempt to shed the pounds. "I've tried everything ... Weight Watchers, eating just rice, just salad, Metabolife, doing Atkins, no carb thing ... everything," she said.
Determined not to let obesity shorten her life, Suter (pictured, right) decided to take a drastic measure to take off the pounds. She opted for gastric bypass surgery to shrink the size of her stomach.
"We make the top of the stomach very, very small, about the size of a golf ball, and then attach the small intestine to that piece of the stomach, so when the patient eats, that tiny little stomach fills up really quickly and then the food goes into the small intestine," bariatric surgeon Julie Ellner said.
"At six months, patients have lost 60 to 65 percent of their excess body weight," Ellner said. "At the end of the year, our patients have lost 85 percent of their excess body weight."
Two and a half months after the surgery, Suter's weight was down 58 pounds from her former 308 and her self-confidence had increased dramatically. Suter hopes that other obese men and women will consider the surgery.
"It's the best hour and a half of your life," she said.
Sandra Suter underwent the operation over a year ago and has lost more than 100 pounds.
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"I'm an active, healthy, thin person living inside this big body, and I don't like it," Amy Suter said.
Suter said that she feels like a prisoner inside her body, and that for the last 10 years, the pounds have been piling up.
As a high school freshman, Suter weighed 115 pounds. As a senior, she was up to 150. And in college, "I gained the freshman 60," she said laughing.
Doctors said that Suter's family has a genetic connection to obesity.
"We are predisposed to be overweight, I really believe," Suter's mother, Sandra Suter, said.
Amy Suter has tried all sorts of diets in an attempt to shed the pounds. "I've tried everything ... Weight Watchers, eating just rice, just salad, Metabolife, doing Atkins, no carb thing ... everything," she said.
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