|
Blues Singer Uses Surgery to Lose Weight
You can hear Kevin Burt's melodious voice six nights a week, 350 times a year in Eastern Iowa. At 402 pounds, that performance schedule has taken its toll on Kevin's body. As a last resort, Kevin chose to have his stomach permanently reduced to the size of his thumb.
"Bottom line is I miss playing. I watch my kids having fun. I watch my wife having fun with my kids. I go to join in with them and I can do it for a little while but it's just a little while. Then I got to sit down. I gotta breathe," said Burt.
The blues musician turned to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass surgery. Through six small incisions, Isaac Samuel, MD, used laparoscopic tools to change Kevin's organs.
Samuel said, "We transect the stomach to create a small stomach pouch. The rest of the stomach just lies there. Then we transect the small bowel about 75 centimeters down the line. The 75 centimeter bypass is where a loop of bowel is taken up and connected to the pouch."
Kevin had the surgery on May 11th. Just 19 months after his wife, Nicole, had the same procedure. "It's a lot to put yourself through and there's a lot of risk and it's a huge commitment. Huge! Because once you do this, you can't go back," said Nicole.
Nicole has lost 160 pounds since her operation. She has become a role model for her husband.
"The life is coming back to my husband," said Nicole, "The sparkle in his eye. The glow in his face. He's talking about a future. I haven't heard that in years."
After 43 days (on June 22, 2006), Kevin has lost 57 pounds. He walks a mile every day and is sticking to his liquid diet for the first few weeks. "The outcome is I'm going to meet somebody I've never seen before. My target weight is 225 pounds. Still not a small person, but by my standards, I'll be half the man I was," said Kevin. He hopes to be twice the father he was, too.
Cassie Willis will continue to follow Kevin Burt's story over the next several months and report back on his progress.
To find out where Kevin B.F. Burt & The Instigators are performing, go to this website: www.kevinbfburtandtheinstigators.com.
Originally Reported by
By Cassie Willis, KCRG-TV9 Health Reporter
Video version available at KCRG-TV9 website
|
