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Hugo's struggle
by José Enrique Sternberg (Buenos Aires, Argentina. July 2010.)
I met Hugo Cardoso in 2008 through a popular Argentinean TV program (a sort of reality show) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, promoted by a leading physician in slimming treatments and obesity.
Hugo, currently 41 years old, tipped the scales at approximately 250 kilos when he went to the program's casting session, seeking help to deal with his weight problem.
His loving wife and children supported him unconditionally. "It kept me away from my family, my wife Roxana and my children, Huguito and Florencia. I love my work, my machines (fork-lift trucks) but I have to re-establish contact with my family that God gave me, which is what I want most in life...”
The problem involved having to live with another ten people with the same problem for 6 out of 7 days a week in a house near the clinic. Sometimes he did not go home the whole week.
For nearly a year, he was given various treatments there and participated in the TV program as the directors required. He lost 100 kilos in 12 months. Then, weighing 150 kilos and with dozens of problems, including financial ones, he was ready to go ahead and try bariatric surgery or a gastric bypass and drop his weight to 135 kilos.
This is the chronicle of his time in the midst of his intense struggle, when he was trying to reverse the course of a crisis that began with the death of his mother, when he was newly married, an enterprising worker and self-employed, 1.85 m tall and the perfect weight.
“At that time, I had a great figure...”
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