Going Into Debt to Save a Life

Sept. 30, 2008 — -- Johnna VinZant's life revolved around keeping herself alive. Routine visits to various doctors' offices had become daily "pit stops" -- regular maintenance checks to keep her going.

If the average person saw VinZant on the street, they might have looked at her and seen someone who needed to go on a diet. She is, in fact, morbidly obese -- her 5-foot-3-inch frame carried between 270 and 280 pounds on average.

The weight was literally killing her. She had a laundry list of complications, including diabetes, sleep apnea that strained her heart, spinal disc disease, arthritis and incontinence -- and the list went on.

"Some mornings I wake and I can't even get out of bed. My legs don't work. Can't get to the bathroom. It's scary," she said.

So VinZant decided to make the gamble of her life. She said doctors had told her that bariatric surgery was a necessity because time was running out.

The surgery involved stapling her stomach to make a small pouch, leaving her no choice but to eat less because there's so little space.

She needed to lose weight, a lot of weight, and fast. There was just one problem -- her insurance company suggested a diet program and rejected her request for surgery coverage.

VinZant recognized that her request for surgery to some might be seen as an unnecessary.

"I've been on several different diets," she said. "I've been on several different exercise programs. I'm not a candy bar person. I don't sit and eat Bon Bons in my room at night. I don't have that kind of problem."

VinZant said that her weight was caused by a hormone imbalance and that no amount of weight loss programs would fix it. Her doctor agreed.

"And all this is, is discrimination," said Dr. Alan Wittgrove. "What they want her to do is to submit to a process that is known to fail, that is diets for morbidly obese individuals in lieu of having something that is known to be successful in a very high percentage of the population. No other place in medicine would they do that."