Surrounded by numerous bottles of medication he must take and equipment to help him breathe, 51-year-old Hector L. Dorta Jr. began telling his story.
His son, Jesus M. Estrada, stands behind a camera, filming the first of what Hector hopes will be a series of videos that will tell fellow Latinos who suffer from similar health issues that there is hope.
“I want people to know they have a choice,” Dorta said. “They can chose to change their life for the better.”
Known throughout the Reading Latino community for his involvement in the Puerto Rican festivals in the city and for his role in pioneering and hosting local Spanish radio, Dorta hopes he can use his position to educate Spanish speakers in Berks County about obesity and weight loss by way of a bariatric surgery called a gastric sleeve.
The Sept. 13 operation removed nearly 80 percent of Dorta’s stomach and enforced the remaining portion with an 11-millimeter diameter frame, changing the structure of the stomach to be shaped like a tube.
Dorta will now be reaching out to the Latino community by uploading videos onto YouTube and posting them on Facebook.
Reaching the community
As co-chairman of the Patient Family Advisory Committee and member of the Safety Committee for St. Joseph Medical Center, Dorta said he knows the importance of getting this information to the Latino community.
“We have so many health issues and this can bring attention to it,” he said.
According to the 2013 Community Health Needs Assessment for Berks County, Latinos have a higher rate (71.9 percent) of being overweight or obese than non-Latinos (65.2).
Dr. Mary Kelleher, chief medical officer at Berks Community Health Center, agrees that Latinos in Berks face information health disparities.
“Obesity is an important contributor to health issues we see,” she said. “Diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea: all are rooted or exacerbated by weight gain.”
“People think they are eating healthy, but when they see how much a serving of rice actually is they laugh,” Kelleher said, also noting the prevalence of deep-fried, fatty foods.
The health assessment also found that 86.6 percent of Latinos consume fewer than four servings of fruits and vegetables a day and 28 percent have high blood pressure.
Kelleher also emphasized childhood obesity as the major contributing factor to adult obesity, but Dorta’s condition stems from a sudden and unexpected complication.
The fight for air
In 1997, Dorta suffered his first asthma attack. He was diagnosed with chronic asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
Since then, Dorta has faced a number of health complications including sleep apnea, acid reflux, high blood pressure and worst of all, vocal dysfunction and bronchial spasms.
“My lungs cramp up,” Dorta said, acting out the frightening experience of having his lungs quit on him. “Then I can’t breathe, and I have to wait a few seconds and gasp if I can.”
In attempts to combat these problems, Dorta takes a cocktail of medications every day and sleeps with breathing assistance equipment. He has been taking steroids since his first asthma attack, which has contributed to him gaining 140 pounds and making him admittedly prone to mood swings.
Before his operation, he weighed 330 pounds, and the extra weight has only contributed to his breathing problems.
He also volunteered to take the experimental drug Xolair for persistent asthma as he underwent the sleeve procedure – which removed the majority of his stomach.
“I went ahead and said I would try it so it could help those little kids who live like this,” Dorta said. “My goal is to do everything I can to help and if they can test it out on me to help them, then that’s what I have to do.”
A way out
Dr. Fred Ceppa, one of two bariatric surgeons in Reading Hospital’s Weight Management Center at Spring Ridge in Wyomissing, where Dorta had his procedure, said the stomach sleeve operation has many benefits.
“This absolutely helps with breathing issues,” Ceppa said. “This directly affects sleep apnea because you are breathing against so much weight and also patients find they have more energy and more mobility.”
Dorta did not have to pay for the bariatric surgery; Medicare covered the operation. For those who receive the operations there are remarkable benefits, Ceppa said.
He explained that 80 percent of people who had diabetes before the operation are no longer diabetic; 78 percent of hypertension goes away; 75 percent of patients no longer have high cholesterol and 85 percent no longer suffer from sleep apnea.
But doctors warn that the operation is not for everyone.
“I have seen people who have really benefited from gastric surgery,” Kelleher said. “But I have also seen a lot of people who have complications afterward, so you have to keep that in mind.”
Dorta said he faced breathing complications when given pain medication, had to endure nearly 12 hours of pain after the surgery and had trouble keeping food down for several days.
“Never in my mind did I think I was going to have so much pain,” Dorta said. “People have to think twice, prepare yourself for about seven days of it being really hard.”
Ceppa agreed that patients have to decide if the procedure is right for them.
“There is no perfect surgery,” Ceppa said. “There are pluses and minuses to every surgery.”
Weight off his chest
His first video, “Weight Off My Chest 9/12/2013 Pre-Operation,” is already online and Dorta said he will continue to post after every 30 pounds he loses.
Dorta will also speak about the procedure and recovery with his doctors on the Directo A La Comunidad program on BCTV and give weekly updates on his early Thursday morning radio program on WXAC 91.3 FM, where he is known as Junior: El Salsero.
Since the operation, Dorta said, the recovery has been much harder than he expected, but he is willing to do it for his own sake and for others.
“There have been times that I have asked why, but I don’t question God,” he said. “I know God has a purpose for my situation so I deal with it, respect it and go with it.
“And I know I can help someone else through it.”
Contact Anthony Orozco: 610-371-5015 or aorozco@readingeagle.com