Gastric Bypass surgery saves Dallas Texas man's life...TWICE!

Jason Rannebarger
The way Jason Rannebarger sees it, Dr. Nick Nicholson saved his life.
Twice.
The first time was on April 28, 2007, when Dr. Nick performed life-changing gastric bypass surgery (one type of said surgery is lap-band), on Rannebarger, who weighed 427 pounds on the day of his procedure. The second was less than five months later, when the car Rannebarger was driving was broadsided by a Ford F-350 Super Duty Truck and flipped three times.
“The only reason why I’m alive right now is because of the weight I lost from the Gastric Bypass surgery,” said Rannebarger, who was down to 315 pounds at the time of the accident. “They [emergency personnel] told me they wouldn’t have been able to cut me out of the car if I had still weighed what I did.
“So the Gastric Bypass surgery, (sometimes known as lap-band surgery) and Dr. Nick, really saved my life.”
Today Rannebarger, a former offensive lineman at Oklahoma State University, is, quite literally, half the man he used to be … weighing in at a healthy 220 pounds. In addition to his weight loss, he also was able to toss the prescriptions he was taking to lower his high blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. His sleep apnea is gone, too.
Rannebarger also is thankful he now has the energy—and the life expectancy—to enjoy his family, which includes wife, Lili, and his “two little princesses,” Mia, 2 ½, and Julie, 9 months.
“I was on my way to possibly an early death, with two children not even three years old,” Rannebarger says. “They were my motivation for the Gastric Bypass surgery.”
As a college football player, the 6-foot-5 Rannebarger worked with nutritionists, strength coaches and trainers to maintain his “playing weight,” which generally hovered around the 340-pound mark. When his athletic career was over, he no longer had the support system in place to help him with his life-long struggle with weight loss, and the pounds started piling on.
By age 27, and with a young family to consider, Rannebarger was ready to discuss his weight-loss options (such as lap-band sugery). When he decided on gastric bypass surgery, his general practitioner recommended Dr. Nick.
“I did my homework and determined he was the best. His amount of experience helped convince me,” Rannebarger said. “And then when I met Dr. Nick during the [free weight-loss, lap-band] seminar, I knew he was my kind of guy.
“It was a total trust issue with me; I wasn’t going to trust just anybody with this kind of procedure.”
Pre- and post-op, the former college football player and Nicholson high-fived to its success … and the results were almost immediate. With the continuing support of Dr. Nick and the guidance of a registered Nicholson Clinic nutritionist, Rannebarger started losing an average of 10 pounds a week.
“I’d buy a new pair of pants on Monday, and they would no longer fit by Friday,” Rannebarger laughs.
Better, he says, to incur those costs than the expense of his health and, quite possibly, life … which Rannebarger has a new lease on.
Thanks to Dr. Nicholson.
“I would do anything for Dr. Nick, and the respect and admiration I have for him is unbelievable,” Rannebarger says. “After all, I owe my life to him.
“In more ways than one.”