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Pictured are Dr. Arthur Gilber (left)
and patient Manny Puig shortly after
surgery at South Miami Hospital
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Manny Puig lives for danger. Each week on the Animal
Planet Network he faces an alligator, rides with the sharks or
confronts some other undersea predator on his television program
Extreme Contact.
Yet, this brave man suffered with a hernia for seven
years before getting up the courage to go to a doctor.
"It kept getting bigger," says Puig, a
former state champion weight lifter at Gainesville High who today can
lift almost 400 pounds. "When I lifted weights I would strap
myself in a jock strap and three bathing suits so my organs wouldn't
pop out in my groin."
The bulge became noticeable on television and Puig's
hernia became a topic of conservation among members of the production
company. Company associates including underwater cameraman Mark
Rackley and world free diving champion Mehgan Heaney-Grier -- urged
him to see a doctor. Finally, another underwater cameraman told Puig
about the Hernia Institute of Florida, at 6250 SW 72 Street.
"They fixed his hernia and he was back in the
water in no time," said Puig. "He said there was almost no
pain."
Puig called for an appointment and met the Institute's
Dr. Arthur Gilbert, who just happened to be an underwater diving
enthusiast. After a thorough examination, Gilbert declared Puig to be
the best physical specimen he has seen in all his years as a doctor.
"His body is amazing, inside and out," said
Gilbert. But, he noted that Puig suffered from a typical hernia,
a tear in the abdominal muscle which serves as a floor for the
abdominal organs. When the patient stands, one of the organs may push
through the tear and it shows as a bulge in the groin. Hernias never
get better by themselves, but may become larger.
"It never really hurt, but it was annoying,"
said Puig, who lays claim to being able to remain underwater for more
than five-and-a-half minutes.
Gilbert used a new hernia repair technique that he
designed and perfected called the Prolene Hernia System. Manufactured
by Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, it is becoming widely
used around the world.
The system utilizes a "sandwich" of two
connected polypropylene mesh patches. The patches are stitched on
either side of the hernia opening, creating a permanent repair.
Gilbert then closes the incision with a form of superglue called
Dermabond, also manufactured by Ethicon, which replaces the use of
old-fashioned stitches.
"I couldn't believe it when I took a
shower," said Puig. "It was as if I hadn't been cut open at
all."
Immediately after the surgery Puig felt so good that
he decided not to go home. Instead, his friends picked him up at the
ambulatory surgery center and they went for a ride. Four days later he
was back partying in the clubs.
Anxious to get back to his routine, Puig began asking
the doctor when he could resume diving and weight lifting.
"There's nothing you can do to damage the
repair," Gilbert told him. "You can do whatever is
comfortable for you."
"That's good," said Puig, "because I
was at my sister's last night and forgot I had the hernia surgery and
I jumped over a wall. Everybody began yelling at me to take it easy
because I just had surgery."
Gilbert says that while most patients don't recover
quite as fast as Puig, the typical patient often feels well enough to
go out to dinner the night after the operation and usually is back to
normal activity within a week.
Puig, who lives in the Keys near Big Pine Island, is
off to film the next episodes of his television program, which
includes such adventure titles as Running with the Bull Sharks, Giant
Grouper Adventure, Journey to the Barracuda's Lair, Snapping Turtle
Adventure and Sailfish Quest.
For more information about the Hernia Institute of
Florida, please call 305-667-7878.
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