Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Stigma


My iGoogle is set up to daily pick up news feeds on gastric bypass surgery.  Today, it led me to this article:

Wednesday, November 19


In the Nov. 15-16 weekend edition of the Bennington Banner, I wrote a story about a young man from White Creek, N.Y., named Jason Burdick. The story recounted the past three years of his life and his journey from someone so morbidly obese he could barely leave the house to his current state - a man nearing full recovery and embarking on an amateur boxing career.


The story was one personally inspiring to me and to many readers. The crux of the entire piece, however, was false. Jason's road back to health was not a simple matter of diet and exercise, as I had reported. Two years ago, he underwent gastric bypass surgery, a procedure which was, in fact, the starting point for his tremendous weight loss: 280 pounds and counting.

For any readers who were misled by the story, I'd like to take the time now to explain how it made its way into the paper.

I have been a regular member of the gym where Jason works out for two-and-a-half years. I have watched him train hard, exercise and lose weight before my eyes. I finally introduced myself this past summer, remarking that I was impressed with what he had accomplished, and curious as to how he had done it. I was a stranger then, and I can understand why he wouldn't want to divulge his personal medical history. But when I approached Jason two weeks ago about the potential for a profile about his weight loss and boxing career for the paper, I made clear that for such a story to work, he needed to be 100 percent honest with me, and talk about things he might find embarrassing. I would, of course, want to know all the details of how he had allowed his life to deteriorate. In this regard, I believe Jason was honest.


When it came to his weight loss, however - through two lengthy interviews and several background conversations - Jason never once mentioned that he had undergone gastric bypass surgery. When I asked him if the procedure was something he ever considered, he replied, "That wasn't for me."

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws would make it impossible to obtain Jason's medical records to verify such a statement, but I am not absolving myself of guilt. I trusted him and did not ask him to present his medical records. In hindsight, had I asked, he might have revealed the whole truth. The result was this past weekend's story, built on the false pretense that Jason lost 280 pounds solely by working out religiously.

I want to first apologize to our readers. Indeed, many of you knew the full truth behind Jason's weight loss and commented on our message boards. Those comments prompted me to call Jason again and confront him with this information, at which point he revealed that he had undergone gastric bypass surgery.

I have been sick over this glaring omission since it came to light, and I don't expect the feeling to abate anytime soon. I take great pride in my work, and have never before experienced anything like this. The thought that the days spent producing this story were not only in vain, but misled our readership, is an extremely bitter pill.

As bad as I feel right now, I know that Jason feels the same way. He has apologized to me, and I realize that he never intended to mislead the public. He had erected a personal barrier when it came to his surgery and it was something he wasn't willing to share. I wish he had told me that he was uncomfortable sharing his entire story. Such a revelation wouldn't have scrapped the idea, but merely shifted its focus to what he has done and continues to do to keep the weight off.

In closing, I would like to ask anyone familiar with this story and with Jason personally not to judge him. He has been through more than I can begin to fathom for someone of his young age, and I wish him the best of luck on the road ahead. He didn't ask for a story to be written about his life. I approached him, and with that in mind, I can say he didn't know what he was getting into. He is still a remarkable human being with an fantastic story to tell.

I regret that I couldn't tell it the way it was meant to be told.

This article upset me a little bit.  So as there was an email address for this sports editor, I sent him the following email:

I find it sad that you feel the need to apologize at all.  Jason made a choice to remain private about his surgery and as someone else who has undergone gastric bypass surgery, I'm guessing at least one his reasons is that so many judgmental people look at WLS as "the easy way out", which it is not.  For some people, it is the ONLY way out. 
 
With that being said, Jason still worked hard to lose the weight and exercise is a HUGE part of that.  I spend five days a week at the gym, one and a half to two hours each day, working.  Yes, other people do that who have not had surgery, but if Jason lost 280 pounds, I'm assuming he maybe weighed to start out (I did not see the original story you wrote) somewhere in the vicinity of 500 pounds.  Exercising at that weight is nearly impossible; everything hurts, you get out of breath easily, not to mention the ridicule from cruel strangers that see you making an attempt to change your life.  Though I started out at 315 pounds, working out was so difficult and when you feel like all laughing,mocking eyes are upon you, it is hard to be inspired to continue, especially when the weight drops off so slowly.
 
When humans accept the fact that obesity is a disease and that surgery is one viable option to treat it, then maybe people like Jason won't feel the need to hide the information.  I have lost 91 pounds since April and feel I have every right to feel every bit as proud as anyone who loses weight "the old fashioned way".  I've worked my butt off for it and put my life in jeopardy by undergoing surgery.  It has hardly been easy.

Now, let me end by saying that I don't know what Jason's reasons were for not being forthcoming with the fact that he had surgery.  But I do know that when I see someone that I am not close to and don't see often, who remarks on how much weight I've lost, I am very hesitant to tell them how I did it.  Fear of judgment goes a long, long way.

And that's all I have to say about that.
 



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