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| Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 | Emily Halevy | CWK Network Producer |
“It’s a different kind of operation. It’s an operation where not only do we change a person’s anatomy, but we have to change a person’s lifestyle for it to work.”
– Dr. Robert L. Richard, Bariatric Surgeon at Obesity Solutions Medical Center
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The number of teens undergoing gastric bypass surgery has more than tripled
in the past 10n years. In this operation, the size of the stomach is drastically
reduced to help the patient lose weight. But is it safe for teens?
“I had to have been close to 400 pounds,” remembers
19-year-old Jessica Collins, “but I never got on a scale.
Scales weren’t big enough for me.”
She was 17 when her doctor said her pulmonary hypertension would
be fatal if she didn’t lose weight.
“My cardiologist said that I had a good 10 years [to live],” says
Jessica. “…That would have made me 27, and I have
so many dreams that I want to achieve and I can’t do it in
10 years.”
So a year ago, she had successful bariatric surgery.
“From the time I had my surgery until I went back and weighed
the second time,” she says,” I had lost 40 pounds.
By my three-month checkup, I had lost 70.”
“Better than that,” explains her doctor, Robert Richard,
M.D., ”her medical issues have improved significantly. Her
activity level has improved, and if you ask her, her social life
has improved. So, I’ve got a normal teenager now. And I think
she’s enjoying life at a different level.”
But the doctor says surgery by itself isn’t enough.
“It’s a different kind of operation,” he explains. “It’s
an operation where not only do we change a person’s anatomy,
but we have to change a person’s lifestyle for it to work.”
She had to change what she ate and how often, as well as how often
she exercised. Surgery can work, doctors say, but only after patients
have tried hard to lose weight all by themselves.
“If they have done that and they have multiple co-morbidities
and, like Jessica, [are] given a death sentence by [their] cardiologist,” says
Richard, “those are the patients that we’re going to
want to evaluate, that we’re going to want to see.”
Jessica now envisions a long life ahead of her.
“It’s just great to know that I could be 60 years
old, 50 years old, retiring from a teaching job,” she says. “Or
I could be 80 sitting on my front porch with my best friend watching
our little grandkids run around.”
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