A Manitoba man says his life has been transformed since he underwent a weight-loss surgical procedure that he paid for himself, as he did not qualify for a provincial pilot program.
Keith Doerksen of Morden, Man., says he has lost about 150 pounds since he underwent vertical sleeve gastrectomy in January 2011.
Doerksen said he had struggled with his weight since elementary school and tried many ways to shed the pounds. He weighed in about 360 pounds before the surgery.
"Life, in my estimation, was going to be short and full of pills and issues around heart [problems] and diabetes," Doerksen told CBC News in an interview.
"I was taking elevators to meetings and sweating over the least bit of exertion," he added.
"I found every sort of diet attempt didn't work and I was extremely, extremely frustrated."
Doerksen said despite the exercise regimens and diets, he gained back the weight.
"For a bunch of years, I never looked at the scale. I just was so disgusted," he said.
"No matter what I did, how many things I accomplished, what kind of letters I had behind my name, 'f-a-t' were still the letters I had behind my name."
Then one day, Doerksen went online and discovered vertical sleeve gastrectomy, a new kind of weight-loss surgery that is less invasive than the gastric bypass his mother who also battled with her weight had in the 1980s.
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Manitoba man's life changed by weight-loss surgery
