Operation hope for 32 stone Crossways man (From Dorset Echo)

Operation hope for 32 stone Crossways man

11:00am Friday 13th November 2009

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DESPERATE Gavin Solly has been given a glimmer of hope in his fight for an operation to end his obesity nightmare.

He said a private hospital company has offered to look at carrying out a £10,950 gastric bypass if the local primary care trust agrees to the funding.

Mr Solly, 50, who lives in Yalbury Lane, Crossways, with wife Christine, told the Echo how he had become confined to his bedroom except for hospital visits.

Now he is pleading for the NHS Dorset Primary Care Trust to transfer the money to the Bromsgrove-based Hospital Group to carry out a gastric bypass operation to reduce the size of his stomach.

Grandfather Mr Solly said: “I just want my life back. I feel like I am being punished. Please just let me have the bypass.” Mr Solly’s weight ballooned after he broke his coccyx and damaged two discs in his back after falling down concrete steps while working at the Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester.

He said that he was due to have a gastric bypass at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton this week but that it was cancelled because of health concerns.

Mr Solly said that he has been given a variety of reasons for not carrying out the operation.

He said that they included needing to lose more weight, that he could die under general anaesthetic and that he needs treatment for a sleep disorder called apnea which causes his breathing to be interrupted.

Musgrove Park Hospital said that the operation was shelved because of an underlying medical condition which would put him at risk. The hospital wouldn’t disclose the condition because of patient confidentiality.

But the Hospital Group said it would carry out the operation if the go-ahead was given after a consultation appointment with Mr Solly.

The Hospital Group specialises in cosmetic surgery, weight loss, hair transplants and denistry.

It says that such an operation for someone of Mr Solly’s size typically costs £10,950 including two years after care and surgical cover.

Patient care co-ordinator Rachel Bennett said that Mr Solly would have a free consultation with a surgeon in London before having the operation at hospital in Orpington, Kent, if funds were transferred from NHS Dorset to pay for it.

The surgeon, and possibly a cardiologist, would need to give the go-ahead for the operation.

Ms Bennett said that Mr Solly suffered the same problems as many of their patients and that his sleep disorder would not be an obstacle. The Hospital Group surgeon will send a report and costing to NHS Dorset after the consultation, and NHS Dorset will decide whether it agrees to proceed or not.

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