60 mins

tellie · August 2, 2004

Hi guys,

just sharing some thoughts. Last week 60 mins australia did a piece on weight loss surgery on children (as young as 12). Of course the slant of the show wasn't very favourable to any of it. And as usual, it wasn;t very informative. They interviewed an aussie doctor ( who is banded himself, sadly not as elocuent as I would have hoped) who works here and in the US. Yet, all the kids interviewd had had a gastric bypass not a lap band and only made a brief reference to the fact that it's not the same thing. They ended the piece with a 15 year old, 4 week post op, crying in pain and asking her mother how could she have let her do this to herself. *sigh* The reporter and most experts emphasized how this procedures were a way of out of doing the work, the effort to lose weight, and a dangerous one at that.

Which at least answered my husbands question of why I wont tell anyone I had my surgery.

Tellie

claraluz · August 2, 2004

That must have been infuriating to watch!

I work in a children's hospital and we are going to start doing weight-loss surgery soon. I don't know for sure, but I guessing it will be gastric bypass. While I think the band would definitely be the better choice for a child, I do feel that some children and teens really do need surgery. I have seen more than a few who weigh near 400 pounds, who can barely walk, and who are suffering from heart failure. They will almost certainly die before adulthood if they don't have surgery. After all, they come from families who have not been able to provide enough support to lose weight by traditional means.

Nancy