Chance Meeting with Inspira CEO Leads to Life-Changing Surgery

Like many people, Andrae Ames, 42, has struggled with weight throughout much of his adult life. Unlike many others, he was able to reverse that trend through diet and rigorous exercise in his twenties, shedding almost 200 pounds over a three-year period.

But in his 30s, with a demanding job that he loved, as a high school music teacher and track coach in Penns Grove, he had less time to work out and admits that his eating habits slipped.

“I knew how to work out, but I knew very little about nutrition,” he said. “Before I knew it, I was 460 pounds and barely able to walk down the halls of my school.”

Getting around school had become so challenging that his band students and their families bought him a scooter. Friends and family began suggesting that Andrae consider bariatric surgery, but he was hesitant.

“I thought it was cheating,” he said. “But now I know I was being shortsighted.” 

Andrae, a spiritual man, believes that unexpectedly meeting Inspira CEO Amy Mansue at church was more than a coincidence. 

“In 2023, I was being given an award as a community leader,” Andrae said. “Completely by coincidence, Amy Mansue was standing in for a person who couldn’t attend the ceremony. We got to talking, and I told her some of my story. She asked me about my job and my life, and I told her how much I loved being a music teacher and a coach and how I struggled with my health and weight. That’s when this person, who I’d just met and who wasn’t even supposed to be there, stopped me in my tracks with four words.”

“She said, ‘The kids need you.’”

“That really hit home,” Andrae said. “I’m getting emotional just talking about it. Amy had no idea I was considering bariatric surgery. She just knew that I was looking to get healthier. What are the odds? For her to sense what I needed and intervene, at that moment, was incredible.”

They talked about options, and Mansue put Andrae in touch with Bradee Rojas, M.S., the bariatric surgery program coordinator, as well as the Director of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Program at Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill, Christopher Bashian, D.O., and dietitian/patient education manager, Gayle Gasparon. 

“Bradee called me that Monday and from there on, I knew I was going to do this,” Andrae said.

Andrae said that everyone on his care team helped him with a different aspect of his experience, getting him through the necessary steps, medications and tests before surgery, and kept him focused on his goal.

“They helped me get everything checked off my list,” he said. “If I had to stress over setting up appointments, I might have quit. But they were so thorough. Bradee made everything so much easier. Gayle made me realize that I wasn’t eating enough, but I was eating the wrong things at the wrong time. She got me to eat two meals a day instead of one and stay consistent for a week at a time. She taught me how to combine food groups for maximum energy. For the first time, someone helped me get smart about eating.”

In March 2024, Dr. Bashian performed a sleeve gastrectomy, a minimally invasive procedure in which a surgeon removes 75 to 85 percent of a patient’s stomach. This restricts the amount of food that a patient can consume.

“Dr. Bashian is such a cool guy,” Andrae said. “He made me feel at ease—got me over feeling like I was taking a shortcut. He made me feel like nothing could go wrong. He was so confident. Several of the nurses really connected with me and shared some of their own life experiences around weight loss. They helped me know I was doing the right thing.” 

In a little over a year following the surgery, Andrae lost over 230 pounds and is back in the gym regularly. But weight wasn’t all he lost.

“At the time of the surgery, my high school kids knew I was going to be out, but didn’t know why. They started noticing I was losing weight toward graduation. But when we came back in September, they really noticed! That’s when I gave the band parents the scooter back. I didn’t need it. The joy on my students’ faces pushes me to go harder in my training. It’s so fulfilling. They’re so excited for me.”

Andrae said that the best thing about his weight loss can be summed up in one word: availability.

“I am now available to everyone,” he said. “I can do anything. I was so limited physically before that I had to make a plan for everything, even minor tasks. It was exhausting. Now I can just get up and go. It’s the greatest feeling ever. Mentally, that is a weight off as well.” 

Andrae said that though he is not focused on getting to a specific weight, he does have one goal. 

“I told my pastor that I want to come to church someday wearing a tank top under my blazer!”