After successful bariatric surgery, Aurangabad woman Zeenath Khan returns home

"I am looking forward to a significant weight reduction in the next few months. I am confident that I will be able to find a good job and support my family once I lose weight and become healthy," said Zeenath.

After a successful bariatric surgery, Zeenath Kausar Khan was discharged from Mumbai's Wockhardt Hospital on Monday.

Zeenath who weighed 148 kgs at the time of her surgery was operated by Dr Ramen Goel, senior bariatric surgeon & Director, Center of Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery, Wockhardt Hospitals, last week.

Aurangabad-based Zeenath suffers from a genetic disorder that led to her uncontrolled weight gain. Her body mass index (BMI) is 58.8 which puts her in the category of super morbidly obese. She suffers from obesity induced, knee and back pain, breathlessness and hypertension.

"Zeenath is a classic case of genetic obesity. Such patients can not lose weight just by lifestyle modifications.They need medical intervention. She underwent sleeve gastrectomy wherein her stomach size was reduced by 80 per cent. Zeenath has already lost 9 kgs in the last five days since her procedure. With strict diet and medical regimen her weight can fall by 70 to 80 kg in a year. Weight reduction will help alleviate her obesity related health issues,” shared Dr Goel. "

Zeenath is a graduate and was working as a teacher until her movements were restricted due to obesity. She has two children (7 years old son and 9-year-old daughter). Her husband is a tailor and the family finds it very difficult to make ends meet, with a monthly income of Rs. 3000.

Feeling stuck by her condition, Zeenath decided to take matters into her own hands and initiated a crowd funding campaign to generate finances for her own weight-loss surgery, in the first week of March.

The campaign called “Help Zeenath Khan undergo a bariatric surgery” quickly went viral and collected Rs 1.5 lakh through offline and online donations.

Wockhardt hospital waived off the admission and surgical charges for Zeenath's surgery.

"Bariatric surgery and subsequent weight loss, will make her an earning member and she can contribute to her family," added Dr Goel.

Dr Ramen Goel's quote regarding violence against doctors

Dr Ramen Goel, Senior Bariatric Surgeon and Director, Center of Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery, Wockhardt Hospitals.

Much of the discussion around workplace violence is about reported incidents. Let us first understand that thanks to doctors and nurses sense of empathy, many incidents go unreported.

Additionally, India’s poor doctor:patient ratio implies that many doctors work non-stop for more than 24 hours.

Doctors in public hospitals treat infectious diseases like TB regularly and fall prey to these diseases themselves, very often. This is an occupational hazard.

Every doctor has a choice, to see 200 patients a day in India,or 30 patients a day abroad and earn much more.

With a meagre stipend, and poor living conditions, these resident doctors often risk their sleep and their lives to perform their duty.

They cannot be targets for pent up emotions and violence.

Lawmakers must consider work place violence for healthcare professionals as a special class of offence. I appeal to authorities to take decisive and positive action to comfort concerned care givers and their family members.