Sleeve Gastrectomy Helps Elyria Man Lose Over 100 Pounds

Born and raised in Elyria, Ohio, 23-year-old Kobe Thomas works full-time as an assistant manager at a paint store in Strongsville. He’s also a college student working towards a bachelor’s degree. Growing up, Kobe played a lot of sports, including football, basketball and baseball. As a child and teenager, he never watched what he ate because he didn’t need to. When he got a little older, however, Kobe stopped working out but kept eating the way he’d done all his life. As a result, he began to gain weight.

By his twenty-first birthday, Kobe weighed 420 pounds.

Kobe’s fiancé, who’d undergone weight loss surgery herself in 2022 and was doing well with losing weight, helped convince Kobe to make an appointment to discuss weight loss surgery options with a doctor. Kobe’s mother, who’d also had weight loss surgery about 15 years ago, encouraged him to learn more about it, too.

In June 2023, Kobe met with Mujjahid Abbas, MD, a bariatric surgeon with the University Hospitals Digestive Health Institute. After an initial consultation and evaluation, Dr. Abbas approved Kobe for a sleeve gastrectomy. Kobe also started seeing nutritionist Katy Hummer, RD, at this time.

Sleeve gastrectomy is a minimally invasive procedure in which about 70 to 80 percent of the patient’s stomach is removed, shrinking it to about the size and shape of a banana. The procedure is performed using the minimally invasive surgery techniques of laparoscopy or robot-assisted surgery. The surgeon accesses the patient’s abdomen through four or five small incisions, each less than an inch in length, rather than the larger incisions used in traditional open abdominal surgery. Among other benefits of minimally invasive surgery, post-surgical recovery is quicker than traditional open surgery.

“After my first three or four meetings with Katy – who is absolutely great, by the way – I thought that nothing was changing for me in terms of me getting mentally and physically ready for this major surgery,” says Kobe. “I felt like I was wasting her time.”

But in the second half of 2024, Kobe finally committed himself mentally, emotionally and physically to what he needed to do to prepare himself for weight loss surgery.

Kobe says he believes the hardest part of dieting and losing weight is having the self-confidence to do it, and that the reason people often lack that needed self-confidence is because they’ve never seen any evidence to show they can lose the weight.

“One day, I weighed myself for the first time in six or seven months. I looked down at the scale and was amazed to see 405. I’d really done it – I’d lost 15 pounds by myself through simple calorie deficit dieting. That was the moment when I knew I could really do this.”

Kobe stuck to watching what and how much he ate while exercising more regularly. It was important to him to prove to himself that he could lose a significant amount of weight on his own before he had the surgery. And Kobe did just that: From August to September in 2024, his weight dropped from 420 pounds to 380 pounds. Through dieting and exercise, he continued to shed pounds and got down to 340 pounds by the day of his surgery.

“I was beyond proud of myself,” he Kobe.

Kobe had his sleeve gastrectomy at University Hospitals Parma Medical Center in January 2025. The surgery went smoothly, and Kobe only had to spend one night in the hospital.

“I remember I couldn’t wait to stand up after I came out of surgery. I felt good, and I was walking hallway laps in the hospital the same day I had my procedure.”

Kobe admits adjusting to the post-op diet was a bit of a challenge, which is limited to pure liquids during the first two weeks followed by a week or two of pureed food before gradual reintroduction of regular foods.

“I think dieting is so good for your body and mind, because in learning to tune out ‘food noise,’ you actually learn a lot about yourself and what you’re capable of,” Kobe says.

By the one-year anniversary of his surgery, Kobe had lost over 100 pounds and weighed 224 pounds. Since that milestone, he has continued to stick to his diet, work out at the gym when his busy work/school schedule permits, and attend follow-up appointments with his bariatric surgery care team.

“Kobe is an exemplary patient,” says Dr. Abbas. “He was committed to his preop lifestyle modification and has been compliant with diet and exercise recommendations, making his surgery a success.”

“I didn’t look at my weight loss surgery as a new chapter in my life,” Kobe says. “I looked at it as a whole new book altogether – a brand new start to a brand new life.”

One of the great, unexpected perks of having successful weight loss surgery, Kobe says, are the compliments he still receives from people who knew him before the surgery.

“Whenever someone notices how different I look today and compliments me on it, it makes me feel really good about myself.”

“I did this for me,” he adds. “But I also did it for others. Because you can’t help others unless you help yourself first. And I want to be here not only to help take care of those around me now, but to one day to take care of my own children and grandchildren.”