RICHMOND, Va. — If you look at Austin Shifflett now, you’d never guess he used to be 324 pounds and bullied for his size.
After graduating high school, where he was called “fat boy,” he committed himself to a demanding exercise schedule and healthy diet, WWBT reported.
He lost 166 pounds, down from 324 to 159.
But shedding the pounds left him with a lot of extra skin. He wanted to get cosmetic surgery, but health insurance wouldn’t cover the $45,000 procedure, making it way too expensive for him.
That’s where the show The Doctors stepped in. The show’s producers contacted local plastic surgeons Dr. Neil Zemmer and Dr. Steven Montante to ask him to do it for free.
Seven pounds of skin had to be removed in multiple procedures.
“We were really able to change his life, and we feel pretty good about it,” Montante told WWBT.
It paid off — literally. Shifflett is now making money as a model.
He’s done photo shoots, and plans for him to appear in some national TV commercials are “in the works,” according to WWBT.
“I always told myself, eventually, I would get it, but realistically, I probably never would have gotten it,” Shifflett said about the surgery. “I could never repay them or thank them enough for what they did.”