KINGSTON, Jamaica — The first-ever laparoscopic gastric bypass to be done on the island is now under way at the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston.

The gastric bypass is a bariatric procedure that manipulates the stomach to aid weight loss.

The patient, who asked the OBSERVER ONLINE to refer to her by the moniker Sandy, weighs 260 pounds. 

When the OBSERVER ONLINE spoke with her last Thursday, she said she was nervous ahead of the surgery, but was looking forward to the results.

Several members of the Medical Associates Hospital team are now glued to a screen in the hospital’s boardroom where the procedure — being done by Dr Alfred Dawes, consultant general, laparoscopic and obesity surgeon, Dr Alcides Jose Branco Filho from Curitiba, Brazil, and Dr Clive Thomas, general, laparoscopic and bariatric surgeon — is being streamed.

For this particular procedure, instead of making a traditional, big cut down the middle of the abdomen, small incisions are made through which a camera and instruments are inserted.

Anika Richards