Doctors with Pittsburgh ties set for high-profile surgery
Patient once weighed nearly 1,000 pounds
Three doctors with Pittsburgh connections are about to embark on one of the most complex procedures of their careers: removing up to 100 pounds of loose skin from a man who once weighed more than 980 pounds.
J. Peter Rubin, a UPMC surgeon and chairman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s department of plastic surgery, and two former fellows at his Life After Weight Loss surgical body-contouring program will be part of the team performing the surgery Tuesday for 54-year-old Paul Mason in New York City.
Mr. Mason, of Orange, Mass., lost 650 pounds after gastric bypass surgery five years ago and still carries excess skin around his arms,
abdomen and legs, causing infections and impeding his ability to function. He uses a wheelchair, walker or crutches to get around.
“He said he feels like he’s carrying around children,” said Jennifer Capla, the lead surgeon who specializes in plastic surgery after weight loss and has operated on “The Biggest Loser” contestants. “Imagine strapping about 60 pounds onto the belly and just walking around.”
Dr. Capla assembled a team of doctors for the procedure, including Dr. Rubin and Joseph Michaels, a Bethesda, Md., plastic surgeon who also did the Rubin fellowship. The three doctors will meet with Mr. Mason on Monday, examine him and discuss any problems they might encounter.
“You need several sets of hands to ensure that everything goes well and is conducted safely,” Dr. Rubin said, adding later, “It’s an incredible privilege, and I’m really honored to be invited to be a part of this team and hope to contribute in a very positive way to the surgery, and to helping Mr. Mason.”
The roughly five-hour surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan will focus on removing the loose skin circling Mr. Mason’s midsection and legs.
The risks are plenty: Mr. Mason has already undergone several surgeries in his abdominal area, and doctors could encounter scar tissue. They must avoid any hernias and the blood vessels that had enlarged to feed the fat that once was there but have not decreased in size, Dr. Capla said.
Mr. Mason will undergo at least one more surgery to remove the loose skin — in all 75 to 100 pounds’ worth, Dr. Capla said.
Dr. Capla first learned about Mr. Mason in February 2013 after her mother called after reading about him in The New York Times.
“She said, ‘You have to read the paper, and you have to help this man.’ No doubt, it was a compelling story, and my heart went out to Paul.”
The newspaper connected Dr. Capla with Mr. Mason, who was living in Ipswich, England, at the time. The two exchanged emails then started talking via Skype. He couldn’t find a doctor in England who would perform the surgery, she said, so she told him if he could come to the U.S., she would do it at no charge.
Others have extended such generosity since then. The assisting surgeons are also waiving their fees. A nurse volunteered to care for Mr. Mason after the procedure, and a man said he plans to cover Mr. Mason’s hotel stay in New York, Dr. Capla said.
In his interviews with The Times, Mr. Mason attributed his former obesity to hardships in his childhood. He told the newspaper that his father beat and verbally abused him and his mother; a female relative sexually abused him for years; and classmates ridiculed him. When his father died, he moved back home to take care of his mother, and food became an “escape,” he told the newspaper.
He went on welfare when he became too large to work at his job delivering mail. Eventually, he received constant care, having to go to the hospital via forklift, the newspaper reported.
Now, Mr. Mason is engaged to Rebecca Mountain, who saw a YouTube video about him around the time Dr. Capla learned of his ordeal. These days he doesn’t eat much and sometimes forgets to do so until his fiancee reminds him, according to The Times.
Dr. Capla said it will likely take up to a year for Mr. Mason to heal from the first surgery. During that time, she said, he will need to be mobile, eat good proteins and take care of his incisions. She said “there’s nothing quite like” the day after surgery when a patient walks around for the first time.
“That is the moment I look forward to with him,” she said. “It’s been a twoyear journey. ... I think all of us who are involved just want to see Paul have that life that he has been hoping for.”