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Al Roker, Bryant Gumble, Etta James, Patti Austin, and Star Jones. All are nationally recognized figures who have benefited from life-changing weight-loss surgical procedures. Now Prince George’s County resident Alfreda Hill-Wilkerson, while not a household name, has joined the national spotlight. That’s because Dr. Terrence Fullum, chief of the Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at Howard University, and the health columnist for Prince George’s Suite Magazine, drew international attention recently (most notably NBC News, July 23) following his use of a rarely practiced surgical procedure.

Dr. Fullum performed an incision-less weight loss surgical procedure in which a physician tightens the stomach pouch created during previous weight loss surgery. The procedure is designed to help patients maintain their weight loss from the previous surgery without the doctor having to make an incision. Sometimes the smaller stomach pouches created in gastric bypass surgery become stretched over time and need readjusting. Dr. Fullum performs the surgery by entering through the esophagus while the patient is sedated. Dr. Fullum, a noted member of the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma, is the only surgeon in the Washington, DC-region certified to perform the procedure, which incorporates the use of a surgical device called Stomaphyx.

Dr. Terrence Fullum, Director, Howard University Hospital Center for Wellness and Weight Loss Surgery

“There’s no incision, so there’s no scarring,” Dr. Fullum, director of the Howard University Hospital Center for Wellness and Weight Loss Surgery, explains, as he describes what he says are numerous advantages over not using a scalpel. “Because there is no cutting, the chance of an infection is dramatically reduced. Additionally, the recovery time is a lot less. Compare two days to about a week, maybe more.”

An Upper Marlboro resident who works as a bariatric coordinator and clinical practice supervisor, Hill-Wilkerson really appreciated the ease of healing. “I really like the fact that there’s not a long recovery time,” she explains, saying she had the surgery on a Friday and was back at work on Monday. “And you don’t have the pain that you do with an incision. I just had a sore throat and it was over in a day. That was it.”

She originally had gastric bypass surgery in 2001. Before the operation, she weighed 310 pounds, which physicians considered as life threatening. Indeed, Hill-Wilkerson, who is only 48, struggled with a variety of obesity-related illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and asthma.

“I took 17 pills and two insulin injections a day,” Hill-Wilkerson explains. “I was on an oxygen tank and used a walker to get around.” She was always dieting, she says. “I had done Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, just about any and every diet that was out there.”

Following the surgery, Hill-Wilkerson says she maintained a regular exercise regimen and a healthy diet. She lost 160 pounds within 14 months, and dropped from a size 22 to a size eight. “It was life changing,” Hill-Wilkerson, explains, adding that the related illnesses even disappeared. “That’s what this kind of surgery is. It’s a life-changing event.”

Life tends to intrude on our best efforts, however. Hill-Wilkerson’s husband died in 2007, and she began putting on weight again, eventually adding nearly 48 of the160 pounds she had lost following surgery. “I think it was stress,” she says. “I just know that I started eating more.” She soon ballooned to 198 pounds. Something had to be done.

Dr. Fullum to the rescue. “It has been shown repeatedly that the only reliable long-term solution to morbid obesity like Ms. Hill-Wilkerson had is weight loss surgery,” says Dr. Fullum, who has developed and directed bariatric surgery programs at five institutions in the Washington area. He often performs surgery that is video-conferenced remotely so that surgeons may learn from his techniques. He too is the creator of programs aimed at bringing awareness to the benefits of minimally invasive and bariatric surgery. “This is really about health,” he notes. Indeed, Hill-Wilkerson has lost 13 pounds since the May operation. Her goal, she says, is 40 pounds.

RADENN MEDIA GROUP NEWS Service