Hope For Obese Teens?

As America grows increasingly overweight, more and more people are turning to gastric bypass surgery - a dramatic and permanent treatment option to help the obese lose significant weight.

The surgery is becoming more common for adults, and some doctors believe it might be a viable option for obese teenagers like Jordan Daily.

Jordan has been big his entire life, all 16 years, keeping him from enjoying the activities most kids take for granted.

He says, "I couldn't fit in the slides on the playground. I couldn't swing 'cause I would break the swings. I couldn't fit in the desks at school. That was really bad 'cause I felt like I was a misfit."

At 15, he weighed 509 pounds. The teasing was torture.

Jordan says, "I tried as much as I could to lose weight, even when I was little, and there was nothing I could do about it, and I felt bad 'cause I couldn't do nothing about it."

Jordan's family knows the dangers of obesity only too well. Eleven years ago, Jordan's mother - who was obese - died of sleep apnea. She was 26.

Jordan now lives with his aunt, Janet. She says, "He was just getting bigger and bigger, and we were afraid his body just couldn't handle it anymore."

Dr. Thomas Inge is a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, part of a team that performs gastric bypass surgery on obese teens.

Dr. Inge says, "When I left my initial visit with Jordan, I saw an individual who had suffered tremendously from his weight problem."

Dr. Inge and his team have strict guidelines to determine if an adolescent qualifies for this life-altering operation.

Dr. Inge explains, "There's no single one thing that we look at and say, 'This is the reason why we have to operate.' There are a number of things: there are psycho-social factors; there are medical factors."

Tests showed Jordan had a body mass index (the measure of body fat based on height and weight) so high, it was off the charts. He was pre-diabetic, had high blood pressure, depression, severe headaches, joint pain and sleep apnea, the very thing that killed his mother.

Dr. Inge says, "We were very worried that Jordan's weight, increasing as it was, with sleep apnea, with problems with his lipid, would suffer a very early demise."

Jordan says, "It's just really scary. It's like I either do this and survive or keep on like this and die whenever I'm 20 or 21."

Jordan underwent an operation that's rare for teenagers. Taking five hours, surgeons reduced his stomach to the size of an egg and then reconnected his intestine to that new smaller pouch.

The operation, done laparoscopically, is meant to jumpstart a patient's weight loss. What's more important, are the changes Jordan must make for the rest of his life.

Instead of calorie-laden items like pizza and soda, Jordan now eats salmon and yogurt and drinks water. Snacking isn't allowed, daily exercise and nutritional supplements are a must. If he eats something he shouldn't have, his body lets him know it.

Jordan says, "Yesterday, I ate ketchup on my eggs, and it wasn't good. I got sick yesterday."

His new stomach tells him what to avoid - a powerful, natural means of reinforcing behavior.

A month after his surgery, Jordan has lost 54 pounds, a good start. But Jordan and his family know he still has a long way to go.

Jordan says, "I want to be normal. I want to be able to ride a bike. I want to be able to fit in a desk and do what normal people do. I don't want to be fat forever. That just gives me hope and the will to keep doing it."

Family support is very important to ensure Jordan's success, as are regular follow-up visits with Dr. Inge and his team. Dr. Inge cautions that not every teen should have this surgery, nor should every surgeon be doing this operation. He further stresses that while Jordan's experience has gone well so far, his case and others should be studied to determine the long-term safety and effectiveness of gastric bypass surgery for teens.