I'm sorry to hear about your mother and pray she finds some relief from her problems. A coworker of mine lost a sister-in-law to gastric bypass and, in that case, the doctor and patient had conspired to lie to the insurance company that the surgery was for gastroesophageal reflux since her insurance company didn't cover gastric bypass. My wife follows a childhood friend on facebook who had gastric bypass and he's had a number of complications and hospital admissions since.

I have seen some real success stories too, where patients are no longer diabetic or hypertensive after the surgery and are able to get off all of their medications. I think the one of thinking of was a Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass. Bariatric surgery is definitely one of those procedures where you want an experienced surgeon, and team (nutritionist, mental health, exercise physiologist).