Tackling Teen Obesity With Surgery: How Young Is Too Young?
Teens are tipping the scales. There's an epidemic of kids who are so heavy they face serious adult health problems.
In two days, Alexis Khan will undergo surgery to help her lose weight.
"We've tried every diet under the sun," says her mother. So Alexis is trying something much different, a gastric bypass. Because she's only 16 years old, having major surgery is not a decision she can make on her own.
Gastric bypass has become an alternative to a growing number of obese teens. Most of the stomach is bypassed, the small pouch remaining allows the patient to eat very little. It reduces calories and also nutrients so it's not an option for growing children.
Alexis has struggled with obesity since she was a baby. A problem with her legs was made worse by her weight. Obesity has brought on other serious medical problems, sleep apnea and diabetes.
"If you have a 16 year old diabetic..by 20 their kidneys will be failing more than likely," says MUSC surgeon, Dr. Thomas Karl Byrne. Weight loss should cure Alexis's diabetes, and eliminate the expense of her medications.
Now that Alexis has stopped growing, she's a candidate for gastric bypass, which should help her lose most of her weight in less than a year.
At four feet ten inches tall, her ideal weight is 95 pounds. "Now if I achieve that, I don't know. I'd like to be 95 pounds but I don't know if that's realistic," says Alexis, who now weighs 243 pounds.
Teen patients are much different than adults who better understand lifetime changes in diet and exercise. Alexis longs for a life without physical limitations. She wants to ride a bike, she's never done it.
"I want to be healthy, that's my main priority," she says.
Alexis also wants life without emotional torment. She is home schooled, but hopes to go to college and get a job; her main obstacle, discrimination.
Ten to 15 percent of patients who've had the surgery gain weight again. Gastric bypass is an option if you are at least 100 pounds over ideal weight, have tried and failed a weight loss program, or have medical problems which could be reversed by the surgery.
The procedure is covered by medicaid and many insurance companies.