Young Woman’s Journey To Successful Weight Loss

(West Islip, NY) – Elyse Capozza’s road to weight-loss surgery started in November, 2012. The 25-year-old graduate student from West Babylon had struggled with her weight her whole life and had tried diets, over-the-counter diet pills and gym memberships but never achieved long-term success. After several years of research and family discussions she attended her first seminar at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center to explore surgical weight loss options and is scheduled to undergo bariatric surgery later this Spring. Ms. Capozza has agreed to share her journey through an on-line bi-weekly video diary.

Journey to Weight Loss – A Bariatric Surgery Video Diary. Follow Elyse Capozza during this video diary chronicling her journey to weight loss. With tools such as bariatric surgery and the support and experience of Good Samaritan Hospital’s team of expert physicians, nurses and ancillary staff, Elyse is determined to safeguard her future and eradicate her life threatening weight issue.

Having just completed a master’s degree in math and ready to embark on her dream of becoming a teacher, Ms. Capozza realized she had to gain control over her weight in order to be truly fulfilled.

“When I learned of the gastric sleeve option I knew it would be an ideal solution for me. It is less invasive than other procedures and will give me more control over my diet and weight loss,” said Ms. Cappozza.

Getting to this stage took several years, but Ms. Cappozza is fully prepared and comfortable with her choices. Following three months of clearances, she has recently lost more than 30 pounds and continues to attend bi-weekly support groups at Good Samaritan. She has completed her cardiology, pulmonology and psychological evaluations and is waiting for clearance from insurance to schedule her surgery, hopefully in early April.

“Although I have never had surgery before and have never been a patient in the hospital, I am very comfortable with my decision to have bariatric surgery. I know it is going to change my whole life for the better,” said Ms. Capozza.

Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center is a 537-bed (including 100 nursing home beds), voluntary, not-for-profit hospital located in West Islip. The medical center, which has more than 4,500 employees and almost 900 physicians on staff, had nearly 30,000 patient admissions and more than 95,000 emergency department visits in 2011. Good Samaritan is a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island. Visit the website at www.good-samaritan-hospital.org.

Good Samaritan provided more than $43 million in community service and charity care in 2011. The medical center supplies residents with the tools necessary to maintain good health. This includes community lectures, screenings, health fairs and other community programs and services.

You can follow Ms. Capozza’s journey of weight loss at http://goodsamaritan.chsli.org/index.php/bariatrics. Updates will be posted bi-weekly.