Surgery for boys 'shows failure on obesity'

Two dangerously obese 14-year-old boys were given the surgery at Sheffield Children's Hospital in 2007 and last year.

NHS chiefs say the operations were a last resort carried out in extreme circumstances.

But Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said they were an example of society's failure to understand the problem of obesity.

Mr Fry, who is also chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said: "It is a horrendous indictment on society that we should ever allow these children to get this fat.

"We have simply in this country failed, all of us collectively, society has failed to really understand the obesity-endemic environment we now live in.

"Why social services, why doctors, why have nurses not triggered alarm bells years ago, because this kind of thing does not happen overnight."

Mr Fry said national guidelines stated that such surgery for children should only be carried out in "really extreme" cases.

"It is something which is certainly not desirable but in some instances where life is threatened by the size of the child then this kind of surgery is appropriate," he said.

Mr Fry said it could be difficult for children to understand the changes they must make following such surgery.

"It's not just a question of an operation, it's an operation followed by years and years of careful eating, coming to terms with just controlling yourself which of course for adults is perhaps not such a difficulty," he said.

"They will be looking at a lifestyle which is much less indulgent than they have been used to. They will have to be taking much greater care of themselves than your average child."

A Sheffield Children's Hospital spokeswoman said: "We have a great deal of expertise in relation to paediatric weight management and endocrinology, combined with the necessary skills in bariatric surgery.

"Any surgery of this kind is only carried out as a last resort in extreme cases."