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Michael White was just 16 when his parents decided surgery was the only option to save him from an untimely death. He was 480 pounds with pre-diabetes, high blood Pressure and cholesterol, dwindling kidney function and asthma. While the surgery was succes
| Thursday, Jan 10 2008 10:21 AM
Last Updated: Friday, Jan 25 2008 5:43 PM
PART ONE ... PART TWO
MICHAEL WHITE
Age: 16 when he underwent surgery, 17 now
Grade: now a senior at Bakersfield Christian High School
Height: 5 feet 11 inches
Weight: 480 pounds, down to 290
Ideal weight for his height and age: 124-174 pounds
Body mass index: 66.9, down to 40.4
Healthy body mass index for his height and age: 17.5 to 24.5
Percentile based on body mass index: then and now, above the 99th (overweight, heaviest category for children and teens)
Michael White has a great life.
He has 4.0 grade point average. He is outreach director at Valley Baptist Church.
His list of extracurricular activities takes up several lines in his yearbook: Associated Student Body, debate, drama, Interact Club, Key Club.
His family loves him. He has loyal friends. He’s a devoted Christian, looking forward to attending California Baptist University.
But at 480 pounds, the 5-foot-11 16-year-old Bakersfield Christian High School student faced a choice — change his life or die young.
His weight was so out of control and his health deteriorating so rapidly, he and his family made a controversial decision for someone so young — bariatric surgery.
Unlike many severely overweight teens, Michael doesn’t hide behind his weight.
He’s a star at BCHS who works to make others around him comfortable. He embraces who he is and faces the world with confidence and dreams.
He’s also borderline diabetic, has high blood pressure, off-the-charts cholesterol, is losing kidney function and suffers asthma attacks.
“The doctor said that the rate I was going I wouldn’t be able to go to my 20-year high school reunion,” Michael says. “That was a shock.”
Dying young didn’t fit into any of his plans.
“He wants to become a pastor, and he has this full academic college schedule planned out, and I think he realized he might not live to see that,” says Gail White, his mother. “He got to where we were saving his life by having (bariatric surgery) done.”
Both his parents, Gail and Michael Sr., were overweight at their healthiest and obese at their most typical.
In fact, Michael Sr. had bariatric surgery in 2004.
“People that do it by themselves don’t normally keep it off,” Michael Sr. says.
He was 245 pounds when he married Gail in 1988 and 420 pounds at his heaviest.
“He was pudgy when he was little,” Gail says of Michael. “We had an uphill fight with his grandmother always wanting to give him chips and cookies, kind of rewarding him with food.”
Michael is the oldest of four boys with his brothers following in his footsteps.
Gail places a lot of the blame on herself.
“I regret not being a better cook,” she says. “There was a lot of eating out, convenience foods that are quick and easy to prepare but not necessarily good for you.”
Michael blames himself.
“You always succumb to temptation,” he says. “Or else I always did.”
Wednesdays at BCHS were Little Caesar’s day, and Michael would eat two slices of pizza, a bag of breadsticks and a 24-ounce soda.
“I looked at the labels, and I saw how bad it was. I had an idea what was in the food,” he says. “And the next thing I knew, I was 450 pounds.”
Like any other boy his age, Michael wants a social life but his weight gets in his way.
“My dad always says, ‘Don’t you want girls to like you?'” he says with a smile. “I’m like a lot of people who want to live their life, have kids.”
His weight and failing health were hampering all aspects of his life.
In spring 2006, Michael went to Mexico with his youth group at Valley Baptist Church.
The heat made even walking difficult. He was constantly dehydrated and suffered painful headaches.
“They thought they were going to lose him because he was so hot and running out of breath and unable to keep up with everybody,” Gail says. “They were really concerned that they maybe should not have brought him.”
Michael played football earlier in high school and enjoyed swimming. But as his weight increased, that and more slipped away. He was too big for the rides at Magic Mountain.
“It wasn’t just all of a sudden, ‘Oh, my son is obese.’” Gail says. “I had been watching him grow and worried, but I can only do what I can do. If you want to eat fat enough, you’ll find a way to eat.”
He and his family tried to make the fat go away: diet pills, fad diets, hard workouts at the gym. He even tried purging what he ate, though that never caught on as a habit, he says.
Michael soon started accruing co-morbidities — like pre-diabetes, high blood pressure and dwindling kidney function.
The family made an appointment with Dr. Hormuz Irani, director of bariatric surgery for Bariatric Solutions, the surgeon who performed Michael Sr.’s surgery
They found out during the meeting with Irani that their health insurance won’t cover a 16-year-old, despite his declining health, and that it would cost $30,000.
“My parents didn’t really tell me much about it,” Michael says. “They just told me it was going to happen.”
Gail’s parents agreed to help pay for the surgery.
Michael would soon become the youngest patient to go through Irani’s Bariatric Solutions program at San Joaquin Community Hospital.
The month of October 2006 becomes a blur of doctor and psychiatrist visits.
To be prepared for the surgery and ensure his body can handle it, Michael undergoes cardiac tests, chest X-rays, ultrasounds, a pulmonary function test, consultation with a dietitian and support meetings.
Michael also must lose weight prior to the surgery.
“He had to show us he was determined to do the lifestyle changes,” Irani says.
Michael lost 40 pounds before going under the knife, which was a struggle in itself.
He would go with his father to Body Xchange gym on Calloway Drive.
At first, Michael couldn’t do more than five minutes of cardio. His back would ache. His joints hurt.
“I had to force myself,” he says.
The week before the surgery, Michael must adhere to a liquid diet.
Michael gets to San Joaquin Community Hospital at about 5 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2006.
“I think he realized this is a do-or-die thing,” Gail says. “I was scared for him, but I was even more scared of him not having the surgery. That morning I was a bundle of nerves.”
If something were to happen during the operation, he felt assured knowing he would go to heaven.
“I wanted to be able to see my parents not worry about me,” he says. “So I was going to risk getting the surgery.”
Gail and Michael Sr. are with Michael as he is wheeled into the operating room at about 8:30.
“I love you,” he tells them.
In the room, they have Michael stretch out his arm.
“I felt like Jesus on the cross.”
A few big breaths and Michael is out.
An incision is made in the upper abdomen.
Next Irani checks Michael’s organs.
Liver, gallbladder, spleen, bowels: all normal.
Irani begins rerouting Michael’s digestive track.
A small pouch, which can hold 1.5 to 2 ounces, is made from the larger stomach. Three rows of staples close the incision. Staples are also used to close the incision on the larger stomach.
Part of the small intestine is brought up to meet the pouch. The hole that food will now have to pass through is purposely made small, which will further hinder Michael from eating too much too quickly.
Irani tests to make sure neither the pouch nor the rest of the stomach will leak.
With the roughly hour and a half surgery done, Michael is wheeled into recovery in stable condition.
