A 12-year-old Texas girl who gained more than 140 pounds after a rare complication following brain surgery will have a weight-loss operation covered by U.S. military health insurance, her mother said Friday.
Alexis Shapiro could be scheduled for gastric bypass surgery
within eight weeks, after TRICARE, the military insurer, reversed an
earlier decision to deny the surgery because the girl was too young.
"I couldn't ask for anything more," said Jenny Shapiro, 34, of Cibolo, Texas. "I'm just so happy."
NBC
News couldn't immediately reach TRICARE representatives, but Jenny
Shapiro said that a case manager called her with the news late Friday.
The reversal came less than a week after NBC News first reported the story.
In
the meantime, well-wishers donated more than $78,000 to an online fund
to help the girl, who suffers from a rare disorder that makes her gain
massive amounts weight even as her body thinks it's starving.
The
problem started in 2011 after Alexis, then a normal 9-year-old, had
surgery to remove a rare benign brain tumor, which wound up damaging her
hypothalamus and pituitary gland, two organs that regulate weight and
appetite.
Since then, she's gained at least two pounds a week,
climbing to nearly 200 pounds on 4-foot-7 frame, despite strict diet and
exercise. At times, her parents have had to padlock kitchen cupboards
because of her severe food cravings caused by the disorder.
Monday, January 20, 2014
