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CHASE SQUIRESA once-obese physician is spreading the word about LAP-BAND, a surgical device that helps people eat less.
DADE CITY - On a Wednesday afternoon, a meeting room at Pasco Regional Medical Center is full of overweight people. There's a thin guy at the front of the room exposing some of the blunt truths about being dangerously overweight.
Very overweight people tie their shoes off to the side - or even opt for sandals and Velcro - because they have difficulty bending over, he says. They ask for seat belt extenders on airplanes, he says, or even try to find out which airlines use American-made planes, because the seats are a little wider.
The group laughs. The thin man knows.
He used to be just like them.
Less than a year after undergoing a laparoscopic surgery to implant a restricting device around his stomach, the formerly 265-pound Dr. Lee Grossbard - who stands 5 feet 5 inches tall - has lost nearly all of his 105-pound goal.
Now he's preaching what he calls "the gospel."
The 51-year-old Zephyrhills physician has given up most of his general surgery practice and has converted almost entirely to performing the weight loss surgery, installing a device called a LAP-BAND. The device, manufactured by a California company called Inamed, is inserted through small incisions in the abdomen and wrapped around the stomach. Fluid inside the device allows a doctor to loosen or tighten the constriction, controling the amount of food a patient would consume before feeling full.
Pasco Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Frimmel said that while Grossbard continues to be the only LAP-BAND doctor in the Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco county area, the hospital has been swamped with calls on the procedure. She has stopped advertising Grossbard's free twice-monthly lectures on the topic.
Grossbard said he offers more talks at his office to curious patients. And he travels to speak to large companies about the surgery.
"People cannot wait to get here" for the lectures, Frimmel said. "By the time they get to us, they're desperate, they're discouraged, they're frustrated."
Grossbard said he sympathizes. Despite trying to diet for years, he could never keep the weight off. He loved to eat.
The band around his stomach is a tool, he said, that helps him stop. He now feels full with less food. He knows he has to step back from the table and stop eating.
"I'm spreading the gospel," he said. "I feel good."
He said he never gets tired of acquaintances who can't get over his new look or who don't even recognize him.
"But the most important thing, I just feel better," he said. "I feel healthier."
He skips buffets now instead of seeking them out. He avoids fast food.
"My favorite food was steak," he said. "A 16-ounce filet for starters. A 72-ounce steak for the main course, with a side of sirloin."
Now? Yogurt. Low-fat cottage cheese.
"I eat a lot of soup," he said.
The surgery is still invasive and comes with a host of warnings. Grossbard said it's important potential patients understand the danger, and during a lecture in front of about 50 prospective patients, he was up front about the risk of complications.
Performing six to eight operations a week, he's had two complications, neither fatal.
The federal Food and Drug Administration includes several warnings and cautions on its review of the LAP-BAND. The FDA also warns there is a potential for fatal complications, and during clinical trials, 89 percent of test subjects reported some adverse reactions; the most common was vomiting at some point after the operation. Patients also reported problems from the band slipping out of place.
Grossbard said he wants patients to understand the risks, and he said it's only for people who are dangerously overweight, and even then, it takes a careful screening to determine if the procedure is right for them.
There are rules to follow after the operation. And there is cost, more than $15,000, and while some insurers are slowly being convinced the procedure is cheaper than health problems related to obesity, Grossbard said many health plans don't cover the expense.
But he said the procedure, done with small incisions rather than by actually cutting a person open as is done with gastric bypass procedures, is less dangerous than other forms of weight-loss surgery. It's also, he said, less dangerous than being morbidly obese.
The procedure is especially helpful, he said, in that it is adjustable. A woman seeking to get pregnant, for example, can have the band loosened, allowing more nutrition for her baby.
Grossbard's patient coordinator, former Inamed employee - and registered nurse - Michelle Dalnoky, like Grossbard, has undergone the procedure. When she was pregnant, she had her band loosened. She gained 60 pounds, and when it was restricted again, she lost the weight.
For Grossbard, being thin is its own reward. His clothes hang off him. Shirts he bought a few months ago are too big. His waist is down from 48 inches to 35 inches. His suit size has gone from a 48 portly to a 42 short.
"This has truly become a life calling for me," he said.
- Chase Squires can be reached at 352 521-5757, ext. 27 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 27. His e-mail address is squires@sptimes.com