‘I Am Not Dying on the Couch.’ Orlando Man Loses 800 Pounds

Ted Dombrowski spent his 50^th birthday on the sofa, nearly immobile. Although down to 800 pounds from a peak of 1,060, he was still so heavy that his stomach drooped to his knees. One of those knees was so painful, even while seated, that 800 milligrams of ibuprofen every six hours barely helped.

He chose to change his life. “I am not dying on the couch,” he decided.

Lifelong Weight Challenges

The New Jersey Dombrowskis were large people. The family of five ate robustly, daily.

“We were meat-and-potato eaters, no vegetables at all, no fruit,” Dombrowski recalls. He clocked in at size 46 in elementary school. By adulthood, the whole clan was rife with Type 2 diabetes along with high blood pressure and cholesterol. “Only three of us are left plus my father,” he says.

Still, Dombrowski lived a productive life for many years. He worked as a Disney World cook, a diesel technician and a fire system installer. He was still up on ladders at more than 1,000 pounds but eventually lost his job in part due to his physical limitations. Without an income, he lost his house, truck and motorcycle.

Dombrowski was stuck. He gorged on fried chicken and all-meat pizzas. An 18-pack of beer was part of every supper.

A year after becoming unemployed, when disability and government medical insurance both kicked in, Dombrowski visited a health clinic. One doctor detected an underactive thyroid and prescribed medication that led to his patient losing 200 pounds effortlessly.

At 50, though, Dombrowski still weighed 800 pounds, unable to have his bone-on-bone knee repaired due to his heft. His blood sugar was high and his blood pressure skyrocketed.

“Your heart is going to explode if you don’t lose weight,” his doctor said. “You won’t live until next year.”

With that news, this 6’3” man, who had always been keen on outdoor activities, was ready for change. “I was tired of not being able to do anything,” he said. That led him to the offices of the Orlando Health Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Institute.

Taking the Next Step: Surgery

After being impressed at a seminar for potential patients, Dombrowski was eager to take the big step in 2015. He worked with Dr. Muhammad Jawad, a senior bariatric surgeon who retired in 2025, leaving behind a team he trained to continue performing a wide array of bariatric surgeries.

I was tired of not being able to do anything.– Ted Dombrowski

Dombrowski was oversized even for a bariatric patient, so Dr. Jawad took extra precautions.

Then Dr. Jawad performed a procedure called a single anastomosis duodenal switch.

“Ted had a BMI of 76 with a lot of fat to get out, and this procedure gave him a higher chance of losing a big amount of weight,” Dr. Jawad explains. He removed three-quarters of Dombrowski’s stomach and rerouted his intestines, then connected the stomach to the lower third of the intestines to allow him to dump out calories as well as fat.  That gives patients a good chance of excessive weight loss.

“Afterward, you can’t eat any type of fatty food.” Dr. Jawad says, “You can only eat small portions of anything because that’s all your stomach can hold, and you get malabsorption,” meaning some food passes through without calories being absorbed.

Despite early concerns, the 45-minute procedure went well and Dombrowski went home four days later. Still, to check for leaks, the Orlando Health team had to haul an old X-ray machine out of the basement because Dombrowski couldn’t fit into the newer fluoroscopy machine. His elevated blood sugar and pressure rates leveled off within a week.

After the operation, Dombrowski changed his eating habits tremendously. He loves iceberg lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower now. Buffets are out; caprese salads are in. “I even developed a taste for raspberries,” he says, noting he suddenly likes some fruits. He hasn’t had a sip of anything carbonated in a decade, including cola and beer.

Thinner Man Emerges

Once he reached 300 pounds, walking through a department store one day, Dombrowski had revelations. “I realized I’m walking, not in a scooter,” he marvels. “And I found out I could buy size 42 apparel off the rack.” He keeps his 10x robe as a reminder but no longer needs 9x shirts and 10x shorts.

Then he was down to 250 pounds and able to have 40 pounds of skin removed from his abdominal area; the excess skin hung down once the fat inside it disappeared. Next, he was allowed to have his knee repaired.

Dombrowski eventually returned to his fire systems work and retired recently after paying off his current house and vehicles.

Today Dombrowski, 61, is 280 pounds, up from a low of 198 two years after surgery, and he’s healthy and active—and trying to drop another 25 pounds. He rides a motorcycle and shares cigar-and-bourbon post-ride moments with his buddies. “I can’t stand looking at four walls anymore,” he says.

Next on the agenda is to finally take a vacation again, which he hasn’t done since the 1990s. The plan? Scuba diving in the Bahamas with his wife, Patricia.

Bursting with energy, he enjoys the title Dr. Jawad gave him. “He says I was his Biggest Loser,” Dombrowski boasts.

This content is not AI generated.