Bariatric surgery began at Winchester Memorial Hospital in the 1980’s with Dr. Gerald Béchamps.  At the time, he was only one of a very few surgeons in Virginia who offered surgical management for severe obesity.  Through the next two decades, he performed hundreds of bariatric surgical procedures.  Initially, Dr. Béchamps performed horizontal gastroplasties and ultimately by the 1990’s he was performing vertical banded gastroplasties.

In 1998, Dr. Troy Glembot moved to Winchester after completing his surgical residency.  During his residency, Dr. Glembot had received training in performing the roux en Y gastric bypass.  In 1999, he performed his first gastric bypass at Winchester Medical Center.  Soon thereafter, Dr. Béchamps converted over to the gastric bypass as the procedure of choice in the management of severe obesity. 

In 2000-2001, WMC hired a full time Bariatric Dietician and a full time Bariatric Clinical Nurse Coordinator.  At that time, the program at WMC was one of the few programs in the country to have this level multidisciplinary involvement. 

In July of 2001, Dr. Glembot and Dr. Paul Ulich performed the first laparoscopic gastric bypass at WMC.  Over the next several months, the volume of gastric bypass procedures steadily rose.  By this time Drs. Béchamps, Wiedower, Glembot and Ulich were all performing gastric bypass surgery and at the end of 2001 almost 200 gastric bypasses had been performed at WMC. 

In 2003 medical malpractice insurance became unaffordable for the surgeons, and in October of that year the last gastric bypass was performed.  From 1999 until October 2003, 584 gastric bypass procedures were performed with a 30 day operative mortality of less than 1%.

By the end of 2005, the administration at WMC made a concerted effort to bring Bariatric Surgery back to WMC.  In January of 2006, Mrs. Tina Shelton, RN was hired to be the full time Clinical Nurse Coordinator for the new program and in March of 2006, Dr. Glembot was hired by WMC as the Medical Director of The Bariatric Program.  In April of 2006, Dr. Wiedower was hired by WMC to be a full time Bariatric Surgeon.  Together, Drs. Wiedower and Glembot will devote their elective practice to Bariatric Surgery.