Recently there was another news item in the national media reporting on a story of a 12-year-old girl who had gastric band or lap band surgery in Mexico. It’s hard to fathom someone this young undergoing elective surgery such as lap band surgery or adjustable gastric banding surgery. However there are many cases reported nationally but they all don’t make headline news.

At 12-years-old she has to be one of the youngest and actually not a teenager yet. So what happened? Apparently her mother was obese at 400 pounds and went to Mexico for the lap band surgery. She said she felt so much better and that it had changed her life so was eager to get her daughter to Mexico for the same surgery. Lap banding or any adjustable gastric banding procedure is illegal in the United States for anyone that young.

She got a lot of resistance from the young girl’s father but finally he relented and agreed to pay for it by withdrawing money from his pension fund – the mother had already taken out $10,000 on a second mortgage financing on her home for her surgery so this was a substantial monetary commitment for the two of them. So I’m guessing the lap band surgery cost was about $10,000 each. A high price for most people since insurance will unlikely pay for it especially for a child or teenager. So the before and after: the daughter who was 289 pounds went down to about 150 pounds and felt she was too underweight for her height so had the gastric band loosened and she gained back 40 pounds.

I don’t know whether they had to go back to Mexico though to have it loosened but I would guess so. Doctors here might not be able to get involved on a child or teen nor want any liability since they did not do the lap band system surgery.

What is not known is what long term affects the surgery will have on the child’s life. Surgery can cause complications in the future even though lap band surgery or gastric banding is supposed to be temporary. One still has to go through invasive treatment. Then there are all sorts of possible complications and risks and always the possibility of fatal one.

Right or wrong people still do it. It would seem normally that a calorie-restricted diet would solve the weight loss problem for a child or teen, unless there is some serious medical reason. Getting adjusted to the surgery takes some work as there are adjustments that may need to be made and maybe more than once, once the gastric surgery is done and may require more trips to Mexico if done there. Fills are another matter to consider. This article is not intended to approve or disapprove however there must be truly extenuating circumstances to consider lap banding surgery for teens or children.