Get Incensed

When I think if gastric bypass surgery, I think of adults, not kids or teenagers. As it turns out though, according to a March 5, 2007 article on CNN.com, the number of obese teenagers that will be getting gastric bypass surgery this year is expected to triple! What the heck is going on?

It also seems that teenagers 12 to 19 years old have a shorter recovery period. So far, no teens or young adults have died, but in comparison there has been 212 adult deaths. Does this make anyone feel better about putting their 15-year old child under the knife to lose weight?

Well, check out a couple of these quoted statistics from the article:

“Children spent an average of about 3.2 days in the hospital in 2003, versus 3.5 days for adults.”

“Total hospital charges also were lower for pediatric patients, $30,804 per patient versus $36,056 for adults.”

Does that help make the idea easier to swallow? Not for me! I have mixed emotions about it, mostly about need vs. lazy, but there have been children as young as 12 to have gastric bypass surgery! Yes, 12! I understand that in many cases, it’s a life or death need, but it’s still not a lifestyle change! You don’t get obese because you have a large stomach - you get obese because you stretch the stomach beyond normal limits! The quick solution may be surgery, but it’s the lifestyle that needs treatment!

I don’t know. Maybe, I have to have a child in that situation to understand the choice. Am I just ignorant to think that childhood obesity is preventable? We’re not talking about just overweight, or those extra pounds we pack on during our awkward puberty stage, we are talking about 80, 100, 120 pounds or more overweight! Isn’t there a way to prevent it? Why does it have to be so hard? So expensive? So life-consuming? I ask again, what is going on?