At 12-years-old Alexis Shapiro is gaining two pounds a week and she nearly weighs 200 pounds after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Shapiro began to gain weight after doctors removed the benign brain tumor which damaged her hypothalamus and pituitary gland — two organs that regulate energy balance, appetite and weight. In response, Shapiro developed hyperphagia and hypothalamic obesity. These conditions causes her body to believe that it is starving and triggers weight gain.
Doctors have advised her parents that the only way to save the young girl is via gastric bypass surgery, however, the insurance company will not approve the surgery which is rarely performed in children due to the high risk of complications.
In the past three months, Alexis has been hospitalized for kidney infection and has developed Type 2 diabetes, both as a result of her increasing weight of two pounds per week.
“Our reviewers have denied your request for Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass,” a rejection letter sent to the family this month reads, adding that Alexis must be 18 or have achieved full bone growth in order to be approved.
Doctors and family have been very upset and annoyed with the insurance companies, TRICARE and Humana Military, insensitivity to the life threatening condition and filing an appeal could take so long that it could be a matter of life and death for young Alexis.
“I think it’s disappointing that they cannot see the facts in this case,” pediatric obesity expert Dr. Thomas Inge says. “There is no evidence that doing nothing would be in this child’s best interests.”
Doctors anticipate gastric bypass surgery could help Shapiro lose 20 to 30 percent of her body mass and reduce the number of false cravings she experiences. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up with donations beginning to poor in in hopes of saving the girls life with or without the help of the insurance company.
