Mom Takes Son to Mexico for Gastric Surgery

Mom Takes Son to Mexico for Gastric Surgery

Thursday, October 16, 2008

filed under: family

75% of people in the US are overweight. 16% of them are children under the age of eleven. For many families struggling with overweight children, surgery is their only chance at change. But is taking them across the border worth the risk?

Being overweight was just something that 39-year-old Dante Fishell accepted as a norm -- she's been overweight her whole life and suffers from diabetes. She has tried every diet under the sun and nothing ever worked. But when she watched her son Joey balloon to 300 lbs at the young age of 13, she realized that surgery might be their only hope at saving his life. Dante found a surgeon in Tijuana, Mexico that would perform Gastric Lap Banding on both her and her son -- despite the fact that the procedure is currently not FDA approved for minors. Dante did not seek consent from Joey's pediatrician or from her own physician, she just went to Mexico.

Recently, UCSD Medical Center, along with ten other centers around the US, ran a trial to evaluate whether gastric banding is a safe and effective weight loss treatment in obese adolescents ages 14 - 17. Dr. Santiago Horgan, the Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Director for Center for the Treatment of Obesity at UCSD, who ran the trial and has performed more than 1,000 gastric banding procedures, told us in an interview that he does see patients in his office from complications who went to Tijuana. "It's very difficult to adopt a patient who we did not approve for surgery. It is a risk. In this case you need to see your physician and dietician, psychologist, etc., any time you need." Dr. Horgan also believes that a critical element to this operation is follow up. "The Follow up is the most important part of the surgery. If you go to Tijuana to have the procedure because it's cheaper, you will be limited to (access to) doctors with regards to follow up because you need to cross the border to see them."

We spoke to momlogic's pediatrician Dr. Cara Natterson, who believes that surgery should always be the last option and "should be coordinated with nutrition and exercise counseling."

But just how worthy is this surgery? Worthy enough to cross the border? You be the judge...

Click to see our "Gastric Lap Band Before and After" gallery

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Check in tomorrow to meet another teenager who underwent Gastric Lap Band Surgery....

filed under: family

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186 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

Why can’t people research before they judge this? You need to google Dr. Ortiz. You will find he is the BEST in lapband surgeries, having done 6000 and trained MOST U.S Doctors. Besides, before long they will approve it in the U.S. The emotional pain you feel as a child being obese is horrific, and it is obvious a lot of you posting have never experienced it. Any emotions he feels after surgery, having doing the surgery will be NOTHING to this life he has had being made fun of. Two thumbs up for this family for doing what they have to do to ALL be healthy!

- DHB

Posted 10/17/08 12:52 PM

Bless your heart for giving this child back the rest of his life! Jann

- Jann

Posted 10/17/08 06:54 PM

I had gastric bypass surgery almost 3 years ago and I am now under my goal weight and called skinny for the first time in my life. Unless a person has been overweight, they just don’t have any idea what it’s like. People staring all the time, thinking all you do is eat or that you are just a lazy, fat slob. I totally can feel for this mom. She doesn’t want her child subjected to all the negativity and teasing that will no doubt follow her son. Saying that however, I do feel that they should have had a through health exam and met with a nutritionist or dietician before having any surgery done. Maybe he could have tried something like weight watchers for a bit until he was a little older. There are reasons it isn;t approved for kids in the USA. It was a bold decision and I hope he is doing awesome and having a better life than before the surgery!

- Tracy

Posted 10/21/08 06:49 AM

i am the child. and i want to kill all of you that think it was a bad idea, if it wasn’t for my mom i would b 300lbls. i am now 230lbls. it was LAP BAND SURGERY, NOT GASTRIC BYPASS. i now thank my mom EVERY day!! p.s. read more before you acusse someone please!

- joey

Posted 12/22/08 12:16 PM

To all of you haters out there sod off because you can’t knock it till u’ve tried it. The lap band comes out if there are complications and it’s a pretty safe procedure too so go take your frustration out on someone someone else. we don’t wanna hear your complaining. and unless u can say u’ve been picked on your whole life go away and quit griping about other peoples life choices. And after that go take a good long look in the mirror. I’m sure all of you rude, ignorant people will find more than enough problems in yourselves to complain about and keep yourselves occupied. And to the people who had the courage to do this sugery, I commend you. — “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain. :)

- torrie

Posted 12/30/08 05:11 AM

Gute Arbeit hier! Gute Inhalte.

- fussball deutschland

Posted 03/04/09 03:57 PM

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