Christine Haveford
When Jacob Miller was a born he was big bouncing baby. At first his parents thought it was just puppy fat but he just grew and grew.
Can you believe that when baby Jacob was just one-year-old he weighed fifty two pounds! Doctors were left completely baffled by the little boy’s weight gain.
They could only tell his parents that Jacob may have a hormone imbalance.
And baby Jacob’s weight became out of control….
As Jacob grew into a teenager he was still a big boy. In fact when Jacob was fifteen he weighed 715 pounds on his 6’5″ frame!
Jacob was in immense pain – suffering both emotionally and physically.
He suffered from diabetes, heart problems and liver disease.
Jacob needed a drastic change and fast!
Realizing that Jacob’s weight could lead to his premature death, Jacob and his parents set out to find a cure.
Jacob found it at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center where he and his parents begged for help.
Jacob’s parents firmly believed there was an underlying problem causing their son’s immense weight gain.
As a last resort the doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center decided gastric bypass surgery was their only option to buy more time for research into Jacob’s condition.
Jacob’s pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Tom Inge, said to Jacob and his family:
“Bodies aren’t built to hold this much weight. Surgery is the best option to give Jacob a chance at turning his life around.”
Jacob followed a restrictive diet in the weeks leading up to surgery and managed to lose 77 pounds.
Jacob and his parents were realistic about the role that surgery would have in Jacob’s journey to lose weight.
All three recognized that hard work would absolutely be required to get Jacob to a healthy weight.
His mother said, “I don’t think it’s the fix-all, cure-all, but at least it’s going to slow him down enough to maybe give us some time to do some more research to figure out what is causing his growth.”
His father admitted that the surgery scared him a bit, but ultimately realized that this was the best plan of action for his son, saying:
“If this is the extreme that we have to go to, then that’s what we’ll do, because whatever he needs done is what’s best for him.”
By six months post-surgery, Jacob had gone from a size 10X shirt to a size 5X, and from 5X pants to 3X pants.
He said of life post-surgery, “It’s hard, but not as hard as it was before surgery. Before I couldn’t do anything, I’d walk for five minutes and I’d have to sit down. Now I can walk for a half hour and not sit down.”
Well done Jacob!
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