My grandson had gastric sleeve at Columbia<Mo 08/2007, he was 15 now hs is 16 as of March 2008. He has lost from 400 to 230 in this time period and it has been an incredible journey with him. He has been big since a toddler and nothing we did helped. We had a hard time finding a doctor to do teen but Columbia worked with us and it took a few month, tests, couseling etc to make sure he was mature enough to handle and understand that this was a lifelong decision but it has been worth it and he is so happy. Good luck