Imagine not being able to play with your kids or barely being able to fit in your own car because of your weight.

That’s what Donna Aguilar of Houston was going through when 11 News introduced you to her late last year.

She said her insurance company wouldn’t pay for the procedure, but that didn’t stop one local hospital from helping her.

When we first met Aguilar seven months ago she could barely get off her couch to play with her own kids.

Getting in her full-size pickup truck was nearly impossible.

“I don’t feel comfortable going anywhere,” she said.

She weighed 470 pounds and was struggling to find a doctor that would perform gastric band surgery.

The 34-year-old mother of two said the problem was so bad she even wanted to kill herself.

“Yes a lot of times,” Aguilar said. “What keeps me going are my girls.”

While her husband had insurance, the policy would not cover her life-threatening weight problem.

Dr. Felix Spiegel, who performs lap band surgery at University General Hospital, heard about Aguilar’s deadly dilemma and agreed to help her for free.

The first step: a primer on the lap band procedure and dieting.

A few months later Aguilar is at the hospital -- 30 pounds heavier and now weighing 500 pounds.

“I feel like it’s a whole new start,” Aguilar said.

The procedure lasts less than 20 minutes; the lap band is now in place.

“And she’s all set get ready to lose a lot of weight,” Dr. Spiegel said.

Aguilar is lucky.

Doctors said her condition was life-threatening.

Fifteen million people in the United States are considered obese — only a fraction – 150,000 ever have the procedure done.

“It’s a shame that we pay so much for insurance, and when we need it the most and when we need the help we don’t get it from the insurance,” Aguilar’s aunt said

How many people are denied coverage for bariatric surgery is unclear. Why they deny people is sometimes misunderstood.

“So everyone gets mad at the insurance companies, but it’s the employer that adds that benefit to their policy,” director of bariatric surgery Trudy Ivins said.

So your own company, trying to save money, may be to blame.

Aguilar’s fight is far from over: She’ll need to learn to eat with a very different stomach.

“It’s not quite this large,” bariatric dietician Kathryn Lito said. “It’s going to be a little smaller that than this, but we tell patients, ‘this is the size of your new pouch.’”

In the recovery room, Aguilar’s doing well.

“I just feel a little bit of pain, but it’s worth it,” Aguilar said. “And if they asked me to do it all over again, I would do it again.”

She hopes to lose 300 pounds – a huge loss that could save her life.

University General specializes in the lap band surgery. Dr. Spiegel said he’s performed more of the surgeries than any other doctor in the world.

11 News will be checking on Aguilar and her progress.