Zoraida G. is a self-assured woman – you can hear it when she speaks. But she wasn’t always so confident.
In early March 2020, Zoraida worked for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. One day she was helping passengers deboard the commuter train when it jerked, nearly taking her arm with it. She had to have surgery. Right after that, the pandemic changed everyone’s lives.
“It was a lot,” Zoraida says. “Things began to spiral. I started to comfort myself with food.”
As Zoraida gained weight, her 10-year-old daughter urged her to go to the doctor. Zoraida insisted she was fine. When the doctor mentioned her weight gain, it didn’t register.
“I was in such a denial state,” she says.
Zoraida’s asthma symptoms got worse, and her energy levels dropped. She couldn’t manage the stairs to her apartment without taking a break every few steps.
“It got to the point where I didn’t want to go outside,” she says.
A wake-up call
One day, Zoraida woke from a nap with badly blurred vision.
“I could see colors, but everything else was fuzzy,” she explains.
She was also intensely thirsty. “I drank 2 gallons of water in an hour,” she recalls.
Zoraida went to the emergency room. There, doctors told her that some of the blood vessels in her eyes were swollen, possibly from diabetes.
Her own doctor confirmed the diagnosis. Tests showed that Zoraida’s blood sugar levels were dangerously high and that she had non-alcohol-related fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
“The doctor told me if I didn’t do something, I wouldn’t live to see 40,” Zoraida says. She was 33 at the time.
Hoping to control her diabetes without medication, Zoraida began a strict diet. She lost 60 pounds and improved her blood sugar levels. But at that point, she couldn’t lose any more weight, even though she had to. That’s when she realized it was time to consider bariatric surgery.
Finding hope — and support — at Temple
The Bariatric Program at Temple was the fourth program that Zoraida visited. Right away, she knew Temple was different.
“There was something different in how they talked about bariatric surgery that made it more personal,” she recalls. “They had doctors and nurses who had gone through the surgery themselves.”
At her first appointment, Rohit Soans, MD, who became her surgeon, was supportive and straightforward.
“He made me feel confident about the decision,” she says. “He said it would be hard work, but I was already putting in the work. I said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Everyone in the Bariatric Program, from Dr. Soans to the nutritionists, were very compassionate, says Zoraida.
“The bariatric team knows that most of us are scared when we go in for the first appointment,” she says. “They put us at ease. They don’t want us to make a hasty decision. At the second appointment, they ask, ‘Is this something you really want to do?’"
As Zoraida went through the preparation for her gastric sleeve surgery in November 2023, she and her husband started worrying about everything that could go wrong. Knowing that, Dr. Soans called Zoraida’s husband the minute he finished the procedure to tell him his wife was doing fine.
Renewed energy and confidence
Zoraida healed well, and as soon as she was able, she began running.
“I’ve always dreamed of being a running girl but thought that would never be possible,” she says. “I went from not being able to walk down the stairs without taking a break to doing 5K runs and training for a 10K.”
Dr. Soans was impressed with her progress.
“He said, ‘I remember when you first came here, and this was all just a dream for you,’” she recalls. “He wants to be there when I run my 10K, to take a picture and put it in his office. That acknowledgment means so much to people like me who go through this procedure.”
Since the surgery, Zoraida has lost 82 pounds, adding to the 60+ she lost before the surgery. She’s seen many health improvements, too: her lifelong asthma is under control, she no longer has non-alcohol-related fatty liver disease, her allergies have improved, and her skin glows. But that’s not all.
