Terry Owston: "I weigh 34st and the NHS won’t give me vital op"

10:12am Friday 12th January 2007

By Lucy Stephens

WEIGHING 34 stone, Terry Owston hoped drastic stomach surgery could turn his life around.

But now the 55-year-old has joined those who have been thrown off the waiting list for obesity operations at York hospital.

Terry, from Rillington, near Malton, is the latest victim of a controversial decision by cash-strapped primary care trust bosses to suspend the surgery for patients across the county while it conducts a review.

Terry said he was desperate for the operation which was his final hope in rescuing him from a serious weight problem.

But now he has been told the surgery has been suspended and he has been removed from the waiting list he has been on since September.

"I'm absolutely heartbroken," said Terry. "I'm 34 stone at the present moment, it's like being in a prison.

"To have this operation would absolutely change my life completely. It would give me a fresh outlook as the weight got off. I'd be able to move about more and help myself more and get out and enjoy myself."

Terry suffers from bad legs, hernias, an irregular heartbeat and depression. He said he had endured a lifetime of bullying because of his weight.

He has been on several sponsored slims and managed to lose a few stone - but said he had turned to eating again as a comfort mechanism after taunts are hurled at him about his size.

He had not been able to work for the last 20 years because of a glaucoma eye condition.

"If I was capable of doing exercise then I would get out and get around," he said. "But with this weight being on (I can't), and since I've finished work I've had a bad back, so that doesn't help."

Earlier this month The Press reported the case of Philip Cooper, (see related link below) from York, who has also been taken off the waiting list for surgery for the same reason.

Last year North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust asked GPs not to refer patients "at the present time" for morbid obesity surgery.

A spokesman explained the trust was reviewing hospitals carrying out the procedure to make sure they met national guidelines.

While the review is being carried out, patients from West Yorkshire can be given the surgery in York, but local people cannot.

The trust said it was looking at obesity as a whole and establishing the best ways to treat people with weight problems.

In the meantime, GPs who felt their patient's case was exceptional could ask for them to have the surgery on a one-off basis.