A Journey to Health and Happiness Through Bariatric Surgery

Jeffery Orseno is happier now than he has been in a long time. He has lost more than half of the 875 pounds he weighed just about 10 months ago, thanks to a decision to get healthier and have bariatric surgery.

“I really had no life,” Jeffery says of his pre-surgery days. “It was hard to move around. I was out of breath just moving partially across the room.”

He adds, “I wanted to get healthier and lose weight, basically get my life back. I wasn’t working; I wasn’t going out of the house or anything.”

Jeffery sought help from Federico Serrot, MD, Medical Director of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital.

“I think it’s important to understand that bariatric surgery is not cheating,” Dr. Serrot says. “Surgery is an option. It is a tool. The success you can get from surgery is much higher than any other options for weight loss.”

Dr. Serrot performed a sleeve gastrectomy on Jeffery. It is a restrictive type of surgery in which, in Jeffery’s case, approximately 60 percent of his stomach was removed. With the smaller stomach, the patient must eat less and, as a result, there is weight loss.

Jeffery’s surgery took less than an hour, and he says that Dr. Serrot was thorough in explaining what would happen while being “very reassuring.”

Jeffery has lost 471 pounds and is working toward his goal weight of 250 pounds.

“What Jeffery is doing at home – being active and making the right choices – is what is making him so successful,” Dr. Serrot says.

Jeffery is now working on “getting his life back.” He has gone back to work as a middle school history teacher.

“Pretty much everything that I am doing now is because of the bariatric surgery,” Jeffrey says. “If I could give one word of advice to people it’s to do this to not only be healthier, do it to get your life back.”

“I was just sitting at home and watching the world go by,” he adds. “I got my life back and I can’t tell you how happy I am.”