Potentially Life Saving Operation Performed By Gravitas Surgeon To Be Shown On Irish TV

February 8, 2011

Fans of popular RTE TV programme Operation Transformation will get a chance to see a County Kildare patient with a heart defect undergoing potentially life-saving weight loss surgery this week.

In the episode due to be aired on RTE1 on Wednesday 9th February at 8pm, Gravitas surgeon Mr Mayilone Arumugasamy is shown performing a gastric bypass operation on patient Susan McGlynn, who was recently diagnosed with a heart condition that can be life threatening.

Freight operator Susan, 48, who weighs 24½ stone and has a body mass index (BMI) of 56, has Wolf-Parkinson White Syndrome, which puts her at risk of a dangerously fast heart rate if left untreated.

But cardiologists can’t attend to her heart condition until she has lost weight as her size puts her at greater risk and makes it difficult for them to x-ray her chest accurately and map out the area on her heart that needs to be treated.

Susan, who suffers from disturbed sleep and swollen ankles, is also pre-diabetic, which means she could go on to develop type 2 diabetes, a life-long condition often associated with obesity, if she doesn’t reduce her BMI.

“The gastric bypass will help Susan lose a substantial amount of weight which in turn will make it much easier and safer for her cardiologists to treat the faulty electrical pathway from her heart,” says Mayilone Arumugasamy.

“She should be able to have the vital heart treatment she needs by the end of the first year, when most of her excess weight will have been lost.”

Performed as a laparoscopic (keyhole operation) with Gravitas, a gastric bypass is usually more effective than gastric banding and works by making the stomach smaller and the digestive system shorter so less calories are absorbed.

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