My Inspiration: Dr Kelvin Higa

The man who inspired me to start Gastric Bypass Surgery for morbidly obese patients is Dr Kelvin Higa from California US who is one of the most prominent Bariatric Surgeons of the world.

Our center was one of the first in India in 2004 to offer Gastric Bypass to deserving patients and has a successful series of more than 1000 happy patients today.

Gastric Bypass is an excellent surgical option for those who gain weight in spite of eating less. Normally its a good option for very high BMI (40 and above) patients. Certain lifestyle changes such as taking supplements lifelong is needed after surgery. But taking supplements life long is much better than taking diabetes and blood pressure medications everyday for instance. Isn’t it?

Dr Kelvin Higa, the current president of American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons has a large role in getting me started with gastric by pass where we bypass a large portion of stomach and intestine and make food mix with digestive juices a little late down the digestive tract. The delay helps in reducing calorie absorption and solves the excess digestion of food that takes place in some patients which is the root cause for stubborn excess weight.

It was a great pleasure to connect back with him recently in Goa at Asia Pacific IFSO convention.