Feature: Mexican teen to undergo life-changing gastric bypass surgery

Mexico's Dayana Camacho, 14, will soon become the first teenager in Latin America to undergo gastric bypass surgery in a bid to control her obesity, according to her surgeon.

Dayana, who weighs 200 kg, suffers from "extreme obesity, which is why it was decided to carry out this operation, the first in Latin America on a child or adolescent," Dr. Jose Antonio Castaneda told Xinhua in an interview.

Castaneda said the 45-minute operation, to take place on Tuesday, aims to help the teen "have a better quality of life."

"I'm very happy about this operation. I don't want to be like this anymore, I want my life to change and for people to stop staring at me.," said Camacho, resident of Colorado, a town in Mexico's northwest state of Sinaloa, told a local daily recently.

In the past year, the teen's weight increased to the point where normal everyday activities, such as going to school, became too difficult, partly from physical exertion, and partly from psychological strains.

Her mother, Ramona Carrillo, sought help from local media.

"Dayana's situation worsened and that's what made us seek help even on radio and television, so a doctor somewhere could hear us," Carrillo told Xinhua.

"Dr. Castaneda was the one who took notice and now he is going to operate," said Carrillo.

"We hope everything turns out fine and most importantly, that it changes Dayana's life," said her mother, adding the teen "is excited because she says she is going to be a new, thinner person and she can go back to school and, above all, show everyone who made fun of her and that she can overcome this."

The operation will take place at a private hospital in Guadalajara, capital of western Jalisco state, which specializes in gastric bypass surgeries, said Castaneda.

Mexico has the world's highest rate of childhood obesity, according to the United Nations. Endi