Gastric bypass surgery is becoming an increasingly important procedure to address the growing morbid obesity problem in Canada, but there are years-long waits for the procedure across the country.
Doctors have estimated there are nearly 500,000 Canadians now considered morbidly obese. Those who suffer from the disease are at high risk of dying as it can trigger diabetes, heart problems and arthritis.
"I worry a lot about patients with morbid obesity," Dr. Arya Sharma told Â鶹´«Ã½. "I know that these patients are in distress. I know that they can be helped."
For many morbidly obese people, gastric bypass surgery may be their only option. Diets have limited short-term effects for the morbidly obese and exercise is painful because of their excess weight.
Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine. Those who undergo the procedure will feel full, quickly, and will consequently reduce the amount of food eaten and calories consumed by the person who has had the surgery.
Catherine Sims needs the surgery but she does not have easy access to it. She may have to wait anywhere from six to eight years for the procedure. She had recently lost 100 pounds but regained the weight because of knee problems preventing her from exercising.
"I think if this gastric thing is the answer...why isn't it here for us -- quicker for us?" Sims told Â鶹´«Ã½.
While the Ontario Health Insurance Plan will pay for gastric bypass surgery, demand heavily outweighs supply. A 2005 report from Ontario's Medical Advisory Secretariat estimated that Ontario must do 3,500 obesity-related surgeries a year just to keep up with demand. It currently does about 500.
To offset the demand, OHIP sent 394 Ontarians to the United States in 2006 to undergo the procedure. However, this costs OHIP roughly twice as much as it would to have the procedure completed in Ontario.
Sharma, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., has 600 patients of his own who have been assessed for gastric bypass surgery.
One of his patients, Jamie Bogart, grew to 500 pounds waiting for the operation, before eventually dying last month.
Bogart had waited seven years for the procedure. A letter approving him for gastric bypass surgery arrived three days after his death.
"I do hope Jamie's story is a wake-up call," said Sharma.
He added that Bogart's story is a reminder that obesity is a disease that needs to be dealt with seriously.
"It is a disease that kills young people and there are a lot of Jamies out there -- and if they don't get medical help they are going to have the same story happen to them," he said.
With a report from CTV's Avis Favaro and Elizabeth St. Philip
