Kiriakou's gastrectomy
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Kiriakou's gastrectomy was the operation in which John Kiriakou's stomach was surgically removed in September 2022, undertaken to reverse an uncontrolled type 2 diabetes that had defeated every available drug.

The Lancet paper

The route to the operating table began with his doctor, who handed him a reading assignment rather than a prescription: an article from The Lancet written by a Scottish surgeon. The surgeon had been treating a woman with stomach cancer who also had uncontrolled diabetes. Her stomach was removed for the cancer, and within twenty-four hours her pancreas began producing insulin again. Other surgeons, comparing notes, reported the same result.

Three telephone calls

Kiriakou pursued it by telephone. He called the Scottish surgeon and made an appointment to speak with him, and was told: "It works. We don't know why it works. We don't yet fully understand the human body, but it works. And there's almost no downside, no side effects." Asked whether anyone in the United States performed it, the surgeon named one in New York, who repeated the same formula, "We don't understand why it works, but it works."

Kiriakou asked whether the operation was a bypass, a sleeve or a duodenal switch, and was told those do not work: "The stomach has to physically come out." He was given the name of a single surgeon practising in Arlington, Virginia, where Kiriakou lives, Dr Jihad Salama, from Lebanon.

The money

Salama's first point was financial. Because the procedure is experimental, insurance would not cover it. The price was $17,000, including two nights in hospital. Kiriakou did not have it, so he went to a bank and took out a loan for the full amount.

The operation

The surgery was performed in September 2022 and was robotic: the surgeon worked the toggles while the machine made "two little cuts", still visible, through which the stomach was taken out. Kiriakou had taken nothing but clear liquids for ten days beforehand, so that the organ was empty and had shrunk; it was cut, pulled out, and a pouch holding a quarter of a cup, "just enough to fit in the palm of your hand", was constructed from his intestine.

He took liquids for a further week, then moved on to pudding, purée and soups. Over the following nine months he lost 55 kilos and, he says, has kept all of it off. The result he places above the weight is the disease: "I don't have diabetes anymore. My A1C is normal. Everything's normal."

The operation left him unable to eat certain foods at all. Asked about Greek lamb, "I'm Greek. I love arni, right? Who doesn't?", he said it is now too heavy, too dense and too fatty, and that he vomits as soon as he eats it. It also placed him in the minority of patients who suffer serious complications.

See also

- Kiriakou Type 2 Diabetes
- Kiriakou Post Gastrectomy Complications
- Kiriakou On Diet And Nutrition
- John Kiriakou
