Weight gain for weight loss procedures?

I remember a few years ago my husband telling me a story that floored me.  A lady at his job was lucky enough to inherit enough money to afford most things.  She had a different expensive car for every day of the week.  She wore expensive clothes and jewelry.  You know, she was one of the lucky ones.  Anyway, she opted to work because she was board she worked very part time position in my husbands company. What is awesome sauce is they provide health benefits to everyone.  What he told me about this woman was needless to say repulsive and insane.  She had apparently made friends with some of the overweight people within the company because they were struggling to lose weight and opted for the lap band.  I honestly do not know if these woman truly needed the procedure however it was paid for by the company so I am guessing this was the last option they had.  Anyway.  This  lady opted to gain weight so she can half the lap band surgery.  I had seen this woman before the weight gain and the procedure and she was maybe at most 20 pounds over weight.  And that is just guess because I honestly don’t thing she was even that heavy.  And there was no way she was heavy enough to merit this type of procedure without a considerable weight gain.  Apparently she got her wish.  After some time off she came back, and was thinner and a tad pallid, with her tales of the surgery.  My question is, isn’t there a protocol in place for stuff like this.  Do they really just hand out unnecessary surgeries like you won the lotto?  Don’t the doctors look at your medical records and see that you just recently gained an obscene amount of weight.  Don’t they recommend other types of weight loss prior to slicing and dicing?  I am still in a bit of shock about this.  I don’t condemn people the surgery who actually have tried it all and its their  last option.  But I do condemn those who get it when it was just the popular thing to do.   I may be off the mark here but I would rather not have money if that was the only thing I could think of  spending my money on.

HUGS