Helen Morgan believes she is one of the lightest women in the UK to have a gastric band. But despite almost dying when it went wrong, she’d have it again. Story in CLOSER mag this week…
When at sister site Featureworld we saw Helen’s before she had her gastric band photos, we were amazed because at just over 14st she wasn’t that overweight.
However, despite losing just over three stones – and undergoing emergency surgery when it wore a hole in her stomach lining – Helen says she would have another gastric band if she puts on weight again.
Helen was 36 when she decided to spend £8,000 savings on gastric band surgery. She weighed 14st 4Ib and although doctors said she should simply diet and exercise, she managed to get it done at a Harley St Clinic.
She went down to around 101/2. She says having having the band was a ‘weight lifted off my shoulders’ as it meant she could eat what she wanted.
Before having her band she’d found dieting difficult. Calorie counting didn’t fit in with her busy lifestyle and diets never lasted longer than around a month. She also disliked exercise.
However, in May 2011 she became so ill doctors thought she would die. At first doctors thought she had a simple infection. But it turned out the band had made a hole in her stomach and gastric fluids could have seeped out. If they had done, they would have digested her internal organs.
It was removed and thankfully, against all the odds, Helen, now aged 42, survived.
Despite all this and despite the fact she now weighs 11 1/2 stone – therefore she has lost less than three stones in total through all this – she has no regrets. She believes the gastric band was the best thing she ever had done and she couldn’t have lost the weight on her own.
However, the single mum of two is worried about getting fatter again and if she did, she would consider trying to persuade a surgeon into doing it again.
Do you have a gastric surgery story to tell? Did a gastric band or gastric bypass work for you? If you would like to tell your story to a glossy women’s magazine, contact us via Featureworld: Sell My gastric band story
