12-Year-Old Girl Has a Liposuction Surgery
12-Year-Old Girl Has a Liposuction Surgery
Brooke Bates, a 12-year-old girl from Austin, TX, had a liposuction surgery, becoming the youngest liposuction patient in the world. At her 12 years and 5-foot-5 she weighed about 220 pounds, which was classified as “morbid obesity”, and continued to gain weight. 35 pounds of fat and fluid was removed from her body by liposuction and a tummy-tuck surgery was performed to remove excess skin. After the liposuction Brooke’s weight decreased to 150 pounds and the whole family considers it a miracle, while Brooke herself confirmed that the surgery had changed her life in many ways.
Brooke had to struggle with her weight since she was a little child but none of the innumerable diets helped her, she explained. The enormous weight ruined not only her relations with other people and self-esteem, but also her health. At her age she had high blood pressure and was running risk of a stroke. At first, Brooke’s parents considered a gastric bypass surgery as a liposuction alternative because liposuction is not a weight loss method. But gastric surgery is far more dangerous, with the possibility of fatal outcome as high as 2%. Also, a family’s friend died after gastric bypass surgery, so the idea was dropped. Another factor that made Brooke decide on liposuction is that her father was fatally ill and she wanted him to see her normal before he dies. Her only desire was to ‘look a little normal’, as she said to Dr. Robert Ersek, a leading plastic surgeon in Austin who performed the liposuction surgery. Dr. Robert Ersek who initially opposed to the idea of liposuction on a 12-year-old, admitted that there are cases when such drastic methods can be acceptable, if this is the only way to turn one’s life into a normal one and all other methods don’t work.
12-Year-Old Lipo - a Dangerous Trend?
However, many doctors call what had happened a dangerous precedent that can become a trend and doubt that a liposuction procedure is wise for such young patients. American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that over 3,000 people under 18 had liposuction the previous year. No doubt, this trend will make natural weight loss methods yield to cosmetic surgery. Now doctors are urging parents to pay attention to their kids’ life-style and eating habits first of all. It is necessary to understand liposuction risks and also the fact that people with bad eating habits gain removed pounds back very quickly.