A year after the surgery that changed my life

Today, is exactly a year after I did my bariatic surgery, at Damansara Sepcialist Hospital. I was a morbidly obese chap when in April last year, my cardiologist, who is a personal friend Dr. Mohd. Yusof Sulaiman out it bluntly to me and immediately, I was convinced to under go for the surgery.

Then all the test was carried out and I was prepped for the surgery. I was admitted on 30 June 2007, 4 days earlier so that the doctors could monitor all my vital statistics for the Roux-En-Y gastric by-pass surgery. Surgeon Dato' Dr. Haron Ahmad will perform the surgery, assisted by his instructor Dr. Paul Wizman, a Monteral native living in Miami. At this point, I tipped the scale in the excess of 210 kg!

My fellow obese friend Lars Olsen, a Danish living in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, had his first surgery in the week. The surgery took 5 1/2 hours. Immediately after the surgery, Dato' Dr. Haron and Dr. Wizman came to see me. I raised the question on whether I could last that long on the OT table, under general anaestethic. That got the surgeons thinking.

Right: The night before surgery. I was already on a four day food free regime then


I raised the same question to Dr. Daud and my respritologist and chest physician Dr. Zainuddin Md. Zin. Then the anaestethist Dato' Dr. Wan Nik also visited me.

Left: First photo post surgery in ICU. Note the anesthetist got me on an incline, to help me breathe better

Then the fateful Wednesday morning came. I was wheeled out of my room at 800 am to the OT. After the prepatory work, I remembered being comforted by Dr. Ibtisam Ibrahim, who was assisting Dato' Dr. Wan Nik, as I was being strapped on the OT table. The reason that I was strapped is because the OT table will be mechanically raised so that the surgery could be carried out at a 75% incline.

Right: Vital statistics looking good post surgery in ICU



Then by 1100am, its all over. I was wheeled out to the ICU for recovery and observation. The surgery was carried out by Dr. Wizman, who had the extensive experience, and he took just under two hours to do the job.

Left: With Dr. Wizman and Abah. Note, I actually grew fatter because of the water retention around the torso area

It was a slow process of recovery for me. First it was the great discomfort of post anesthesia. I developed complications post surgery as my system was retaining water, and unlike other patients, I actually put on more weight (because of the water retention).

I was discharged on 17 July 2007, on my daughter's birthday.


After 365 days, I have lost 60kg from my original weight. Not a bad feat after all!