UCHealth surgeons help save rural woman who weighed nearly 900 pounds

A girl who as soon as weighed virtually 900 lbs . suggests she has been provided a next lease on existence many thanks to surgeons and health and fitness specialists with UCHealth in northern Colorado. Katie Peterson, who weighed far more than 870 pounds in 2021, has misplaced much more than 300 lbs given that owning just about 80{fc1509ea675b3874d16a3203a98b9a1bd8da61315181db431b4a7ea1394b614e} of her stomach eliminated by physicians. 

“I have generally been a massive particular person, even when I was very little,” Peterson told CBS News Colorado. 

Peterson recalled weighing much more than 400 lbs by the time she graduated high university. She claimed she will come from a extended family members lineage of tall and heavier individuals. 

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Katie Peterson


She stated a combination of generics and lousy consuming habits related with emotional traumas, direct her to her virtually 900-pound daily life. 

“My pounds had gotten out of handle,” Peterson explained. 

Peterson decided she preferred to have operation to help get her lifetime again in handle, but most medical professionals around the nation were being unwilling to do the method citing overall health dangers. 

“We tried Nebraska, we tried South Dakota, we tried using Utah. We went as significantly as Texas and could not discover anything at all,” Peterson explained. 

Peterson explained she eventually started to give up considerably of her hope, specially after health professionals started off telling her loss of life was imminent. 

But a person working day she took out her pill and continued to lookup for surgeons who could support her when she found Dr. Robert Quaid and UCHealth in Fort Collins. She traveled from her rural city in Wyoming to Poudre Valley Hospital where by Quaid gave her the respond to she so desperately required. 

“He straight away reported, ‘We will aid you,'” Peterson recalled.    

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CBS


Peterson experienced to iron out a handful of issues with acquiring acceptance with her insurance plan and was then authorised for surgical treatment. 

“I was dumbfounded simply because I experienced so several doors shut in my facial area and so a lot of health professionals inform me there is nothing we can do mainly because you are also massive,” Peterson claimed.    

Dr. Quaid mentioned treating Peterson did arrive with some issues not each clinic is able of managing.

“She is the best-weight person we have at any time done in our clinic, and we have been undertaking this operation considering the fact that the early 90s,” Quaid reported. “She was on her way to dying. She was going to die.”

Surgeons had to use two medical center beds to prop Peterson up for her surgical procedures in the functioning space. They also had to use a substantial scanning device that most hospitals do not have. 

“This level of care are unable to be performed at just any medical center,” Quaid claimed. 

Since the surgery, Peterson has shed a lot more than 300 lbs.

“It is enormous. That is two persons. And I can certainly really feel it,” Peterson claimed. 

Peterson is now ready to stand up without having relying on the support of other people. She is also in a position to stroll more than 30 ft in advance of needing a split, whereas prior to the operation she could only choose a couple methods just before sitting down. 

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Katie Peterson


Peterson will however likely need supplemental remedies and surgical procedures in the coming many years to proceed her progress. Surplus skin will will need to be taken off and she may well need added operation in 18 months to keep on her fat loss journey. 

Peterson stated she preferred to share her story not only as a way to say thank you to the team at UCHealth for helping her regain decades of everyday living but also as a way to encourage rural Americans to not give up their lookups for the healthcare treatment they need to have. 

“I’m much better than I believe I am. I can do all things by way of Christ who strengthens me,” Peterson stated. 

“I can not do just about anything about the earlier, but I can do a whole lot about the upcoming.”