Obesity has taken over this country. Collectively we binge on burgers, fries, pizza, soda, cookies, candy, chips, cake. Stomach ache yet? Adults left to their own fattening American diet is one thing, but children are another. A startling 25% (one in four) of children in America are obese, and it's a fact of life that will actually take lives.
Over the last 20 years or so, for many morbidly obese grown-ups, a last ditch effort to lose weight and reverse the negative-health effects of obesity has been bariatric/gastric bypass (or lap band) surgery. The intricate abdominal procedure is risky, yes, but the reward apparently far outweighs it (excuse the bad pun). On the question of obese teens, however, the FDA has been slow to approve this procedure–it is not performed on anyone under 16 years of age.
One mother, Silvia Miller, wasn't going to let that stop her from getting her 320lb, 13-year-old son, Jesse, access to the medical intervention. Like many people go on "medical vacations" to South American countries for plastic surgery, with the help of the Medical Tourism Corporation, she controversially took her child to have the lap band surgery done in Tijuana, Mexico.
It's too soon to know the long-term effects of this surgery on Jesse, but according to PR NEWS Now, he recently said, "I am doing perfectly well; it went better than I expected."
Would you ever consider taking your child out of the country for major surgery?
P.S. If you are dealing with an overweight child, there's a CM group for struggling moms like you. And on the subject of getting healthy: check out Cafe Kristen's 5 Ways to Avoid Fall Weight Gain.
