UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital leader in bariatric surgery

Steve DePlato lost his eyesight at 16 and figured he had nothing to lose, so he spent the next several years of his life gorging on anything he craved. 

“I just gave up and I ate and drank to get my kicks,” DePlato said. “I figured what could be worse than losing your eyesight. I have battled with my weight ever since.”

At one point, DePlato ballooned to 400 pounds. He worked hard to lose weight through conventional diet and exercise. But he eventually regained the weight. Finally, just before he turned 60, DePlato decided to try bariatric surgery.

Specifically, he underwent gastric bypass surgery in June 2020 at UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont, which recently received national accreditation in bariatric surgery.

“I had to try it,” said DePlato.“I weighed over 300 pounds and I had high blood pressure. But I didn’t want to put in another four years, trying to lose that weight again.”

“I also realized I wanted to live,” he said. “I had a happy marriage and I wanted to live to enjoy that and other things.” That includes performing in a local rock band.

The surgery involves shrinking the size of someone’s stomach to limit the amount of food a person can eat, said Dr. Robert Powell, who performed DePlato’s surgery. Powell  also re-routed, or bypassed, part of the patient’s digestive system so the body doesn’t absorb as much food.

DePlato knew the surgery worked when he tried to eat two hard boiled eggs a few days after the procedure. “I got sick, the most I have gotten sick in my life,” DePlato said. “It was just my body telling me ‘Hey, you can’t eat that much anymore.’”

DePlato is now at a steady 182 and riding bikes almost daily with his wife Tammy. “I feel better than I have in a long time,” DePlato said. “I am enjoying my life.”

Powell said DePlato was a good candidate for the surgery because he embraced the work that goes into permanent weight loss. DePlato underwent months of counseling and took part in a support group, Powell said.

“He’s amazing, he’s motivated and his wife is extremely supportive,” Powell said. “He now knows what to eat daily and what the best foods there are to eat.” 

He said bariatric surgery is no shortcut to permanent weight loss. Patients have to embrace a new lifestyle to get the full benefits of losing weight.

“It’s doing the same things, even if you didn’t have the surgery, to stay healthy,” Powell said. The surgery, he adds, “can simply jump start that weight loss process.”

The surgery can also be an important tool in fighting the country’s obesity problem, Powell said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, estimates about 93 million adults in the United States are affected by obesity that can lead to type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to a UCHealth news release.

The UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital last year was accredited as a Low Acuity Center by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program, a joint Quality Program of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

The designation means patients at UCHealth Longs Peak receive multidisciplinary medical care, which improves patient outcomes and long-term success, according to a UCHealth news release.

Powell credits Laura Miracle, manager of the hospital’s bariatrics program, fellow bariatric surgeon Dr. Derek Leopold, and dietitian Maranda Stone, for helping build bariatric services.

“We really do have a great team here,” Powell said. “And it’s a program that is helping people.”