A Little Tummy Tucking

In this procedure, a surgeon fits a band inside the stomach to reduce food intake or performs a gastric bypass which blocks off 90 per cent of the stomach. So, patients feel full after eating minimal food portions. Dr Pradeep Chaubey, president, Obesity Surgery Society of India, estimates up to 3 per cent of our population is morbidly obese, due to genetic reasons or unhealthy diet. And ever since bariatric surgery was introduced in our city hospitals four years ago, more and more patients have been rolling in.

All candidates for bariatric surgery need approval from an endocrinologist, a gastroenterologist and a cardiac specialist. The Rs 1.5-4 lakh surgery itself takes a few hours. "After I did this surgery on a TV actress, she resumed shooting in Chennai within four days," says Dr Shashank Shah, bariatric surgeon at Pune’s Ruby Hall Clinic. But if a person gorges on high-calorie food, keeps eating beyond the point of feeling full or drinks alcohol, he or she bloats again," warns Vishnu Bhartia, bariatric surgeon at Calcutta’s AMRI Hospital.

For those who follow medical advice, life gains after the procedure are dramatic. Mala, down to half her size, is walking hand-in-hand with her husband after 10 years. Rekha, having reduced 70 kilos, can sail out of her front door and fit into a rickshaw. But, she says, "I don’t need the ride, I can walk." In Mumbai, 58-year-old stock investor Narain Tolani’s weight plummeted from 146 kg to 86 kg post-surgery. "I was like two people in one body," he says. "With one person gone, where does the excess skin go?" But he is happy he can contemplate cosmetic surgery now that bariatric surgery has minused the size of his once dangerously mammoth body.