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Big chance: Widow makes gastric bypass plea |
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By SUE REINERT The Patriot Ledger Mark Gratta looked the picture of health when he played on the Hingham High School football team 28 years ago. ‘‘I remember thinking, ‘He's so handsome and in such good shape,''' said Louise Gratta, who is now his widow. Few people knew the truth. ‘‘He was dieting even then,'' she said. ‘‘Weight was always an issue.'' A year ago yesterday, the 43-year-old contractor from Hingham tried to solve his lifelong weight problem by having most of his stomach stapled shut, an increasingly popular operation. He was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 366 pounds, giving him a body-mass index of 58. An index of 40 or more is considered obese. He died of a massive infection eight days after the surgery. His surgeon at Boston Medical Center, Dr. R. Armour Forse, left five surgical sponges inside Gratta's abdomen. But Forse denies that is what caused the infection. His widow, who has filed a wrongful death suit, wants his death to serve as a cautionary tale for tens of thousands of Americans considering gastric bypass surgery. ‘‘People need to be warned,'' she said. ‘‘Ask yourself: ‘Would you rather be dead than live the way you are?' Mark didn't feel that way.'' read article:
http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/01/15/news/news03.txt
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