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Bronxville Patient Shares Skinny on Bypass Surgery

Livia Pipersburgh of Mount Vernon says “It’s a miracle,” as she describes the gastric bypass surgery she had at Lawrence Hospital Center in Bronxville this past February. Just back from a check-up, Pipersburgh happily says, “I have now lost 90 pounds,” explaining that she no longer requires medication for high cholesterol.  “My doctor gets more excited every time I go.”

Armed with a support group and a great deal of help and encouragement from family, friends, and co-workers, Pipersburgh is proud to tell people she has undergone bypass surgery if it is going to help. She believes some people are still skeptical about the procedure. Pipersburgh credits her general practitioner, Valneo Buttari, MD., and team of doctors at Lawrence with making it all possible.

“They’re the best. They really helped me through a lot of stuff,” Pipersburgh exclaims. She describes the meetings saying they are almost like going to AA meetings. Pipersburgh says she has learned a great deal about what she eats. The group gives ideas of what to cook, how to cook. "They opened my eyes to my eating habits.”

The mother of two, Jessica, 13, and Leonard, 9, says her husband, Ched, loved her just the way she was, but she no longer felt physically comfortable. Now she says it is a different ballgame, listing some of the every day things that are doable again, including fitting into all her shoes, wearing a real pair of jeans, lying down on her side and feeling her waist.

With her 46th birthday just a day after the interview, Pipersburgh a switchboard operator at Mount Vernon Hospital says, “This is the best gift to myself…I have had weight problems since childhood and I never knew I had a thyroid problem.”

According to Lawrence Hospital Center, “Gastric bypass done at Lawrence hospital is a minimally invasive operation that creates a small stomach pouch so patients feel full with small amounts of food. Feelings of hunger are gone. This procedure helps patients lose weight at a rapid and healthy pace.”“I still look at other pictures and go, 'Wow,'” Pipersburgh says, “Little by little God has been with me...My son says, ‘Mommy you got skinny.’"

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