Twelve-year old Girl Undergoes Liposuction

Now here’s one for the record books.

A 12-year girl from Pfluggerville, Texas has possibly become the youngest person in the United States to undergo liposuction, says a Statesman.com report.

Brooke Bates, a middle school student who once weighed 225 pounds, had 45 pounds of fat and skin removed from her by controversial plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Ersek, who once performed liposuction on himself in front of local news cameras in 2004.

The kid and her parents are extremely happy with the procedure. Other plastic surgeons, however, are not.

Most of the experts said their youngest patients have been 15 to 17 and were candidates only because they had stopped growing and had an ill-proportioned body part to correct.

Data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show that liposuction among adolescents 18 and younger represented 1 percent of all liposuction procedures in 2005. The 3,084 procedures were a 22 percent increase for the 18-and-younger set since 2000.

"This is a trend which is very scary and needs to be addressed," said Dr. Joel Schlessinger, president-elect of the American Society for Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery.

Or as Dr. Rod Rohrich of Dallas, past president and spokesman for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, put it: "Don't run to your plastic surgeon. Go outside and run."

Apparently, results of Brooke’s liposuction are quite satisfactory. But I agree with experts’ statements that not every overweight child should try it. They are, after all, still kids, whose bodies are still in the process of fully developing, and therefore should not be messed with.