This somewhat disturbing documentary told the stories of two morbidly obese American teenage girls who underwent life threatening gastric bypass and gastric band operations in a bid to lose weight. There’s nothing new in terms of the operations of course, both are relatively routine nowadays, however, what made these cases particularly extraordinary was that they were carried out on Laura Broach and Victoria Jordan – who’s pictured above – who were aged just 13 and 14 years old respectively at the time of their surgeries.

Obesity surgery has never been more popular in America and last year, nearly a quarter of a million adults went under the knife. British doctors are now calling for more surgery for obese kids in Britain, but even eminent experts in this type of surgery freely admit that nobody has any idea of the long-term effects of this type of surgery.

As one doctor in the programme pointed out, nobody knows what the results of the surgeries may be by the time a child patient is 50 years old because it’s never happened before. He added that because of the relatively short history of such operations, it’s possible that the surgery may “do more harm than good” long-term.

Laura already weighed 24 stone when she was 13 years old and she was one of the youngest American children ever to be recommended for gastric bypass surgery.

Victoria weighed 19 stone at 14 years old and her parents paid $25,000 for Victoria to have the elective surgery to place a gastric band around her stomach.

Both were beginning to experience physical health problems because of their weight and both had been subject to bullying and exclusion from activities their friends routinely took part in because of their size.

But why were they that size in the first place?

Well, of course the issues regarding unhealthy eating were addressed, as was the ready availability of fast food and junk food, but what wasn’t especially given much attention was perhaps the emotional and mental health factors surrounding these girls eating habits. It was suggested in the programme that genetic and hereditary factors may have played a part – both girls were from families who tended towards being ‘large’ – but while they were preparing for their surgeries, if they were counselled in any formal way, we didn’t see it.

One of the central issues in last night’s programme was, could a child of 13 or 14 truly be capable of making informed decisions of the magnitude that was required of them in order to have these potentially life threatening procedures? I would say not; teenagers the world over simply want to fit in and be like everyone else and anyone who stands out for whatever reason generally speaking wishes more than anything that they could change that. This was the case for Laura and Victoria but for them, the decision to undergo gastric surgery is one which will affect them quite literally for the rest of their lives.

Neither girl will ever be able to eat ‘normally’ again but at least in the case of Victoria, the gastric band can be removed or altered; for Laura, the gastric bypass surgery is permanent. As the show went on and both girls had had their surgeries and were losing weight, while Victoria seemed to be thriving and coping well, Laura was struggling.

She was happy about the weight loss but seriously unhappy about what she now had to eat and she wasn’t controlling properly the vitamins and supplements she was supposed to take and therefore was suffering the effects of a lack of these vital elements in her diet. These side effects included hair loss, anaemia and depression.

The mothers of both girls talked openly and frankly about what they perceived to be their failure as parents to control what their children had been eating and both clearly felt guilty about that fact, but for them, surgery was the only answer. Discipline, self-discipline, exercise and good nutrition were, one presumes, something that they’d tried to instill into their children at some point but it seemed to me that by opting for, and allowing their kids to have these surgeries, they were taking the ‘easy’ route.

By ‘easy’ I mean in that by choosing surgery, they were taking away options and choices about food and therefore negating their responsibility for teaching their children good eating habits and enforcing them. What they were effectively doing was putting the emphasis onto the child to control themselves, and as parents of teenagers know, the words “self-control” and “teenager” don’t often occur in the same sentence in any positive way.

Six months on, both girls were losing weight and as I mentioned, Victoria seemed especially happy and was coping well, but Laura wasn’t. I hope there’s a follow-up with these girls in maybe five years and ten years time so that we’ll be able to see how it’s affected them long-term. I suspect that Victoria may come out the other side pretty well adjusted and happy but I don’t believe Laura will.

Laura came across as being a spoiled child; moody, self-pitying and willful with a lack of discipline which is of course not an unfamiliar story where teenagers are concerned, but her mother said in the programme that she hopes that in a few years time, Laura won’t blame her for allowing her to have the operation. I think she might well do just that.

So what do you think? Would you allow your child to have surgery of this type and do you agree or disagree with the UK doctors who believe that prevention is better than cure and that children who have obesity problems should have gastric bands or bypasses?

In case you missed it, you can watch this documentary on ITV’s catch up player here.