There are grown men and women who couldn't find the "willpower" or "motivation" to lose weight until it was nearly too late. There are people all over the board, mature adults, who admit to yo-yo dieting, who admit to cheating, who admit to eating the wrong foods for too long even after they know better, who admit that their cravings are too powerful to withstand. Mothers, fathers, husbands, wives....IOW, people who should know better and be able to stick with it.

This boy is 16, and I would guess has serious emotional problems. I'm no Dr. Phil, but I would be he suffers from Depression and low self-esteem. He's not healthy physically, mentally, or probably emotionally. His parents are responsible for feeding him, for taking care of his health, and somehow, somewhere they failed. This surgery might not just be for the boy, but for the parents as well. It might be <I>their</I> wake up call.

I agree that the bypass surgery is largely unnecessary, and it won't accomplish anything LCing won't accomplish. I know every person on this board has a vested interest in LC working and how its protrayed, and I think some people might be a little defensive and that's led to some of the responses of these threads. But imagine how utterly hopeless you felt at your highest weight, how terrible it was, and then imagine being a kid on top of that.

When I was 16, I weighed nearly 300 pounds, and I cried myself to sleep every night. If somebody had offered this surgery to me, I would have jumped on it with both feet and thanked my lucky stars. Shoot, even if I knew then what I know now, I'd have the same reaction.