RIYADH – A medical team at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) successfully removed 80 percent of the stomach of the morbidly obese Saudi youth, Khaled Shaeri, in a two-and-half hour surgery here on Wednesday. Shaeri, 22, was weighing 610 kg when he was forklifted in a bed specially made to withstand his weight and flown on a specially equipped plane from his hometown of Jazan to KFMC in Riyadh on Aug. 22 in implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Due to the medical program prepared by the treating medical team, Shaeri was able to lose over 170 kg of weight in three months. After the removal of the a big chunk of the stomach, his weight will decrease by 10 kg to 15 kg per week until he reaches the ideal weight, said obesity consultant Dr. Ayidh Rubay'an Al-Qahtani at a press conference. He said Shaeri will lose 70 percent of his weight this year. More than 21 consultant doctors, nurses, technicians and dieticians are working around the clock to serve Shaeri and follow up on his condition. Shaeri was born to normal parents, but two of his 10 brothers and sisters were obese. One weighed 150 kg and the other 100 kg. Thus Shaeri had 30 percent chances of developing obesity. He was born normal but when he was one year old he developed insulinoma (tumor of the pancreas) because of which around 90% of his pancreas was removed. The excessive use of insulin to substitute for the hormone produced by the pancreas from the early age might have made him prone to obesity. According to Guinness World Records, the record weight for a living person is held by Manuel Uribe of Mexico, who weighed 560kg in 2006. Meanwhile, Ministry of Health spokesman Dr. Khlaed Marghalani announced here on Wednesday the ministry's plan to set up five centers for the treatment of obesity in different regions of the Kingdom to support the existing centers and clinics. In August, Director General of King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) Mahmoud Al-Yamani had said that the Kingdom was planning to set up a National Center for Obesity Treatment.
