Major obesity surgery for children will be available on the NHS
Sunday, December 10th, 2006I just came across this story. Can you believe they're even contemplating this?
Why not just teach the parents and children healthy lifestyle choices?
Read on:
Obese children are to receive potentially life-threatening stomach surgery on the NHS under controversial new guidelines out next week.
Overweight teenagers as young as 14 are set to undergo major operations such as a gastric bypass, stapling and banding in a bid to curb Britain's obesity epidemic. Gastric bypass surgery is regarded as a safer form of stomach stapling, which bypasses part of the small intestine to reduce the capacity of the stomach.
In addition children under 12 will be offered anti-obesity drugs - despite the medication being licensed only for use in adults.
Experts proposing the guidelines say these "last resort" measures should be used only when children are so fat their health is endangered by heart disease, diabetes and other weight-related disorders.