Patient Story
Lending some weight to a life-changing elective surgery Kimberly Maher admits she’s been overweight all of her life. The Harrington native was willing to live with the extra pounds until a trip to her primary care doctor changed everything. “My doctor wasn’t thrilled with my cholesterol and said it was time for medicine. I was only 29 years old,” said Maher. “I just kept thinking — this is just the start. Today it’s my cholesterol, but what’s going to be the issue tomorrow? I knew then I had to make a change. It was my wake-up call.”
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That’s when Maher decided to investigate weight loss surgery. She’d seen friends document their own weight loss surgery journeys on social media and decided she was finally ready to learn more. She started by attending a weight loss seminar hosted by Bayhealth.
That’s where she met Bariatric Surgeon Thomas Barnett, MD, and learned about his team and the procedures they offered. From there, Maher progressed through the Bayhealth Bariatric Program, meeting with a dietitian and the other required physicians before having surgery. Maher ultimately decided on the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy procedure. The procedure transforms the stomach from the size of a football to the size of a banana, limiting the amount of food that can be ingested at any given time without altering the normal absorption of vitamins and minerals.
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