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Indianapolis hospital completes 21,000th bariatric surgery

(WISH Photo)

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — St. Vincent Hospital is recognizing a milestone in weight loss surgery.

The Bariatric Center, now in its 20th year, has completed 21,000 surgeries.

Dr. David Diaz, a bariatric surgeon at St. Vincent, says the physical impact of the surgery is now six incisions and a two to three day recovery. 

20 years ago, it was a traditional mid line incision, weeks of recovery, and more pain.

Dr. Diaz says video technology has allowed for most weight loss surgery to be Laparoscopic surgery, making it more attractive to patients as a weight loss tool.

He warns weight loss surgery doesn’t start and stop at the operation itself.

“It’s a team effort,” he said.

There are dietitians, therapists and psychiatrists all working with patients before and after the surgery.

The two most common surgeries are Sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

Both surgeries work by decreasing the size of the stomach by 85%.

Bypass also reroutes food as it goes through the intestines.

“Our stomach can stretch out to almost the size of a volleyball. I mean it can hold a lot of food. If you eat a candy bar it sits there for a long time, it gets diluted with all the gastric secretions. If you’ve had a gastric bypass, now your stomach is about the size of a golf ball and that will go through into the small intestine in a concentrated form. We don’t tolerate that very well,” said Dr. Diaz.

After surgery, the body becomes more efficient at storing fat and breaking down sugar.

According to Dr. Diaz, the center in Carmel is the fifth largest of its kind in the country for medicare patients. 

But to qualify, any patient needs a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or more. 

That’s what Dr. Diaz calls the point of no return. When excess fat can no longer be lost through conventional methods.

For Jeannine Forner, that point was 10 years ago when she reached 255 pounds and wore a size 24.

A decade after the surgery and Jeannine has now maintained a size 14.

“I picked up the sport of golf since then. And love playing golf with my husband. We’re very active which I never was very active before. I was a couch potato and didn’t do anything. So it has changed my life dramatically,” said Forner.

Dr. Diaz says the plan now is to grow their medical weight management program to assist patients after surgery.

The center also has plans for more research. 21,000 patients is a lot of data and Dr. Diaz says, they plan to use it. 

The Bariatric Center at St. Vincent offers monthly support groups for anyone thinking about weight loss surgery. 

For more information, click here.