Librado Heredia Villegar has a complicated bariatric history – too complicated for his local surgeon in Ensenada, Mexico, who recommended Dr. Kelvin Higa at Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital.

Dr. Higa is known internationally for his expertise in challenging bariatric revisions and the hospital has been rated 5-stars by HealthGrades^® for the weight loss procedure for the past three years. Villegar had his first bariatric procedure in 1995 when he was 18 years old, and lap bands were still considered experimental.

He was the 202^nd person to undergo the surgery where a band is used to restrict the stomach’s capacity to hold food. 

Villegar was 365 lbs then and unable to get a permanent pilot’s license in Mexico because of his size. Villegar had a revision done more than a decade later to replace the early technology, and because he had regained some weight, he said. But he had complications that required another surgery and a 13-day hospital stay.
 

Villegar was pleased with his results in Fresno and with the difference in surgical experience at Fresno Heart & Surgical.
 

Erin Kennedy reported this story. She can be reached at MedWatchToday@CommunityMedical.org.