Posted on 08/27/2004 6:56:57 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952
He's storing the fat in case he needs the cells later, will urge patients to do the same
By Mary Ann Roser
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, August 27, 2004
Calling himself the biggest fat sucker in Texas, Dr. Robert Ersek proceeded Thursday to do just that: suck fat from his belly to promote the potential use of stem cells from tissue taken during liposuction.
Ersek, a 66-year-old plastic surgeon at Personique in Austin, performed the liposuction on himself as TV and newspaper cameras recorded what he called a historic act. He had a staff member videotape the procedure.
"Somebody said we're doing our part to keep Austin weird," Ersek said.
The inventor of liposuction -- Dr. Yves Gerard Illouz of Paris, in town for a plastic surgery seminar being held today at Personique -- ducked in and out of the crowded operating room and, at one point, advised Ersek on his technique.
"This will be the future," Illouz said of stem cells. Perhaps five years from now, adult stem cells derived from tissue, such as fat, and other organs will be successful in fighting disease and injuries, said Illouz, who performed the first liposuction in 1977.
Ersek is banking on the future of stem cells and said that's why he'll encourage his patients to save their liposuctioned fat from now on. That is also why shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, Ersek stood in front of the media, wearing only a pair of gray briefs, arms outstretched as if to embrace his self-made spectacle.
Once everyone was in place, he sat up on the operating room table and helped cover his legs with a drape.
"It's a lot better with the patient cooperating, huh?" he said to his assistant.
He then asked for a big needle containing novocaine, xylocaine and epinephrine to numb the left side of his abdomen. He jabbed himself many times, wincing once or twice.
"It's a little tricky when it first goes in," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes.
When he was satisfied that he was numb enough, an assistant handed him a scalpel, and he made a small incision near his navel. He made sure his videographer got a good shot.
"It's unbelievable," Ersek said. "I'm the actor, the director and the cinematographer."
Next, he grasped a metal wand that was more than a foot long and about as thick as a pencil. The wand, or cannula, was attached to a long clear tube with a collection bottle at the end.
Ersek stuck the wand deep into his abdomen and pushed it from side to side. Fat, blood and fluid slowly moved down the tubing and into the bottle.
"I feel absolutely fine," he said, as he moved the wand. "I am surprised how simple and how comfortable this is."
In less than 20 minutes, Ersek had removed about half a pound of fat from his left abdomen.
Elizabeth Scarbrough, vice president of MacroPore Biosurgery Inc. of San Diego, said Ersek collected 250 cubic centimeters of tissue, much more than the 100cc minimum for stem cell processing. Her company will isolate and store Ersek's stem cells in case he needs them in the future.
Adult stem cells are different from embryonic stem cells, which are controversial and involve the destruction of fertilized human eggs.
Ersek said he'd leave his right side "as is" for now and be his own before-and-after liposuction ad for his patients.
The Texas Board of Medical Examiners might want to weigh in on this.
Impressive. Now let's see him do a vasectomy on himself! Or a lobotomy.
This is great...maybe we can put to rest the unborn/stem-cell thing, and do it with something everyone WANTS to lose!
If a who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client, then what is the man who is his own surgeon?
"we're doing our part to keep Austin weird"
Yup
But, can he give himself a good haircut? Now THAT'S something I'd like to see!
Have your husband give this guy a call
It's a shame this important tidbit is buried as the secon-to-last paragraph. Many readers will see this article as fuel for the "Bush is blocking stem cell research" fire. Pity.
Life [ing! Sort of...
"Ersek said he'd leave his right side "as is" for now and be his own before-and-after liposuction ad for his patients."
And we wonder why Doctors are one of the leading causes of "other than natural death" here in the US....
This nimrod could be the poster child!!!
Recently there was a female doctor in Antartica who did a biopsy after she found a lump in her breast. It was cancerous but she had to wait several months before she could return to the states for treatment because of the weather. (If I'm remembering the story correctly.)
It is nowadays. The whining coming from all the RATs here is getting to me. Just can't wait to retire and move to some nice country setting. The libs can have this weird city,
We have driven through the hill country quite a bit lately and it is gorgeous there! Now I see why so many people retire to that part of Texas!
The hill country has great wildflowers in the spring, if there is enough rain in the fall and winter. In the fall, the changing leaves turn the hills into beautiful colors.
Hmmm, according to this, my lard-a** ought live for another 200 years....
....if I don't die of a heart attack first
LOL!
Husband is a psychiatrist,
not a miracle worker, and
this doc needs a miracle. :)
I did note a SD tie to this mess,
and THAT figgers.
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