The teenager hooted with laughter as he cycled past Jasmine Sciasca. “ooh, look at that fat thing!” he called, making other passersby in the street stare shamelessly at her. Hearing the jibe was nothing new for Jasmine, who weighs 214kg.
Every time she leaves her Wanganui home, this desperately shy young woman prepares herself to hear cruel comments from people who don’t even know her. But Jasmine believes the harshest judgement from strangers that she has ever faced came at a recent Whanganui Health Board meeting. There, she made a heartfelt plea to the board members – “Please, save my life.”
It was the second time Jasmine had requested the stomach stapling operation that would end the death sentence hanging over her head. Two years ago, she was told by her doctor that because of her weight she would be dead within five years, and the only chance of survival was to have a gastric bypass surgery. As she rose to her feet in the meeting, with all eyes on her, Jasmine knew these strangers held her life in their hands.
“Deep down, I thought if they met me and realised I wasn’t a lazy person, then they would reconsider. I wanted them to put a face to the name and know I’m not trying to get a free ride,” says Jasmine. “I was standing there in front of them all, fighting for my life, and that was extremely emotional for me. To me, this seems to be the last option – nothing else is working. I will die if I don’t have this surgery.”
But despite her courageous stand, for the second time this year, the board turned her down. Jasmine is devastated by the decision. “It’s easy for people to say, ‘just stop eating and exercise more’. It’s not that simple,” says Jasmine, who insists that she doesn’t eat to excess and tries to exercise as much as possible.
Although Jasmine was an active, slim child, she started to put on weight in her teens. Last year she went from weighing 170kg to 214kg, and says the large weight gain in just a year has to be caused by something more than overeating – that it’s genetics. “I don’t know how it got this bad – I don’t understand it,” she says.
Jasmine describes living in her 214kg body is “a curse”. “It’s awful when I go out on the street and I know that people are looking at me and judging me.” Jasmine, who works as a caregiver, had to quit her job because of the obesity-related illnesses she has, including type-2 diabetes, heart problems, abdominal cysts, and severe depression.
Unable to afford the $28,000 to fund the surgery herself, Jasmine had even applied to health boards in Waikato and Wellington, but was turned down because she was not from those areas. Desperate for help, Jasmine called her local oP, Chester Burrows, who himself has had stomach stapling surgery. He immediately understood Jasmine’s plight and offered to take up her case.
He told the health board that if Jasmine lived in other areas she would have the operation sooner and that it may be a cheaper option to fund the surgery as Jasmine currently needs regular hospital visits, which cost about $1,000 each time.
Despite the board’s decision to not fund the operation, Jasmine is determined to continue her crusade. “If I have this surgery, I can go back to work, I’ll be paying taxes and I won’t have to be on the benefit,” she says. “I’m confident that we will get there. Having Chester on board gives me hope.”
Jasmine says knowing she has just five years, at the most, to live makes her extremely scared. She dreams of one day having the surgery and the opportunity to change her life completely. “I’m really shy and withdrawn because I’m embarrassed about myself. I would love to be a comfortable weight and be at place in my life where my weight isn’t holding me back and making me sad.”
**The DHB responds:
**Whanganui District Health Board CEo Julie Patterson says that while gastric bypass surgeries might be funded in the future, currently, “Whanganui DHB has to prioritise funding across all elective surgery – the introduction of publicly funded bariatric surgery would mean people would miss out on other surgical procedures.”
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