A Feb. 15 article on the British news website telegraph.co.uk provided the following details about the boys' experiences with gastric band surgery:
The first of the teenage boys underwent the surgery in 2006 and the second had the operation last year. Obesity experts said the operations illustrated Britain's failure to come to terms with the problem.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said the surgery, which was believed to have been carried out on the NHS at Sheffield Children's Hospital in South Yorkshire, would have been a ''last resort'' after the boys' weight became life-threatening. ...
Mr Fry said National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) guidelines stated that such surgery for children should only be carried out in ''really extreme'' cases.
''It is something which is certainly not desirable but in some instances where life is threatened by the size of the child then this kind of surgery is appropriate,'' he said.
''Clearly, if it was life-threatening then that's what the doctors thought would be necessary. It is absolutely a last resort.''
Labels: obese teens, gastric band
Posted By: Aspen/CRC
