Hollywood Surgeon: A Cameroon Native

Dr. Fobi is a bariatric surgeon for stars in Hollywood and he happens to be from Cameroon. The surgeon performs weight-loss surgeries for people that are overweight. He has been performing the surgery since the 1970s. He has performed the surgery on American Idol’s Randy Jackson and comedian Rosanne Barr. Dr. Fobi’s procedure requires cutting a patient’s stomach to the size of just a golf ball.

“When I made the stomach so small, I was afraid the patients were not going to survive,” Dr. Fobi told CNN from St. Mary Medical Center where he directs bariatric surgery.” With over four decades of performing the surgery, he has gained notoriety but with a cost. Dr. Fobi has been sued by patients alleging malpractice but he has been able to rise beyond the many challenges he faced. Critics believed that his weight-loss methods were too risky.

When CNN asked Dr. Fobi about the criticism, he said, “Surgery is risky. The perception of the family and my perceptions are different. Over time, the way I’ve been able to live with it is when I’ve had complications, I’ve sat back to see if there is something I did that caused the death or this was just an outcome of surgery, for instance somebody getting a blood clot after surgery,” Fobi said.

“At this stage of my life, “he continued. “I am much gratified and satisfied to see that this is a field which was not accepted, which now is a part of the mainstream – a field for which I was criticized and sometimes sued maliciously because they said you can’t treat fat people with surgery.”

Dr. Fobi’s success has provided him with the resources to give many people in Cameroon. He has created a foundation that ships computers, clothes, and other supplies to Cameroon. Dr. Fobi funds a school for the deaf and scholarships for his family members. To date, he has funded the education of more than one hundred of his family members. He acknowledged to CNN that he has truly been blessed. He is currently hopeful that government will grant him approval for an update to the “Fobi Pouch” procedure.

Source: CNN