Family loses over 370 pounds with help from Dr. Keith Kim and weight loss surgery
The Brantley family decided bariatric surgery was a good option for each of them and collectively have lost 370 pounds.
“Mom, I have to do something.” Samantha (Sam) Brantley was nearing 300 pounds, and at just 20, she was scared. She struggled with being unable to do many of the things her friends were doing, and she wanted a change.
Sam recalls a painful memory while a student at UCF, participating with friends in UCF Knight-Thon, a 20-hour dance marathon with 1,500 students. “I wanted to cry half way through. My knees and feet hurt, and my back was starting to go down. It was a lot harder for me than it was for other people.”
She chose the surgery to enable herself to do the things she wanted to do more easily, and to help her look on the outside how she felt on the inside.
“My whole family was large. It was a continuous trend and I didn’t want it to go on any longer.”
Sam, and later both her parents, Sandy and Sean, sought help from bariatric surgeon Dr. Keith Kim. After undergoing weight loss surgery and with Dr. Kim’s support and encouragement, the trio lost 370 pounds.
“It’s one of the best decisions we ever made,” said Sam, who lost 100 pounds, following her gastric sleeve procedure. “Dr. Kim was amazing, and took such good care of me.”
One month after Sam’s procedure, Sean who was near 400 pounds, underwent gastric bypass, resulting in a 200-pound weight loss.
An outdoorsman by design, Sean, like Sam, found he was no longer able to do a lot of the things he enjoyed.
“I got my life back,” he said. Now he’s back to kayaking, hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, and taking in the outdoors.
“Dr. Kim really cares about his patients,” said Sandy, who lost 70 pounds from a gastric bypass several months after Sam’s and Sean’s surgeries. “Dr. Kim told us, ‘I can give you a tool, but it’s only a tool. You’ve got to use it to be successful.’”
The family is careful keeping up with lab work, follow up appointments, and maintaining their diet.
Sean acknowledges that while they do enjoy small indulgences during the holidays, they plan for them, so they can stay on track and keep their diet in check.
Now 25, and successfully working in tech sales, Sam recently underwent a conversion to gastric bypass with Dr. Kim at UCF Lake Nona Hospital to alleviate severe acid reflux she had experienced with the earlier surgery.
“Dr. Kim has been there for our whole recovery, for our whole journey,” Sam said. “It’s not for everyone, but it was 100% the right decision for us.”
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