please help us save our 12yr old

I am posting this in hopes that you can assist myself and my spouse, our 12 yr old daughter suffers from genetic obestiy and suffers from all the resulting health risks, she has suffered since 4yr old, and has extensive diet and medical history pertaining to, we are looking for a Dr to perform a gastric by-pass proceddure on her.. insurance is not a problem, my husband is currently 1yr status post gastric bypass, with Dr Valin, and it has helped save his life. Please respond to this with any information you can, to help us save our daughter, and find a doctor respond to me at [email protected] or [email protected]

I'm sorry to see that no one has yet been able to assist you. I actually don;t have any suggestions either. But, I wish you the absolute best for your daughter. It sounds like you would need to have a serious one on one with any Dr. to see if they would consider. Have you tried anyone yet? I am a patient of Dr. Aranow in middletown. He is excellent. Really, the best, in my opinion. Perhaps you could call his office and see if you can schedule an appt. I don't think there is anyone out there who would, as a standard, do this surgery on someone so young. I think it would have to be a special consult type situation. Also, I suggest that (if you haven't already) you try posting this to the main Q&A board and see if there is someone out there that knows someone in the region that will consult with you. Again, good luck to you. You and your family will be in my prayers.

HI, As an adult who was an overweight child, I really feel for your daughter...it sucks being a fat kid! I have to wonder though is there a dr. who would perform such a drastic surgery on a child. She is still developing. I read recently that most dr.s won't perform this surgery on anyone under 16. I'm going to do some research for you, there must be an answer. I know it's not weigh****chers and diets like that, they never worked for me as a child. She is so lucky to have a mom like you who is looking for help for her. Being an overweight teen was probably the worst period of my life, while my friends were playing sports and dating, I was working because I didn't fit in the whole teen scene. They were all having fun and I was wishing I wasn't fat! Best of luck, I'll let you know if I find anything. Kim

There have recently been some articles on what the standards should be for doing surgery on morbidly obese adolescents. twelve is very young given that they would probably like to see her be safely post-pubescent, but I would recommend contacting one of the New York hospitals that do bariatric surgery, like NYU and I would also contact the National Institutes of Health in DC which published the standards for bariatric surgery in adults some years ago that all the insurers have to live with. So they may know who is in the forefront of adolescent surgery and even if it isn't this year it could me in a couple of years. My daughter put on thirty pound a year or more every year after twelve and I am hoping she--now twenty--will take the step in the next few years. But it's a big decision, with risks and a hard recovery as you know, and as a hospital lawyer I can tell you that I'd be queasy about taking consent from parents for a surgery of this magnitude which is--however medically necessary--elective. I would explore it but you are probably going to have to go wide in your search. Good luck!