Housing agency works to accommodate 772-pound tenant

Cleveland.com ^ | 11/17/03 | The Associated Press

[mansion]

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The city's public housing agency is trying to resolve a lengthy dispute by accommodating the needs of a 772-pound tenant immobilized by her weight.

Carmen Bowen, 44, has been involved in a two-year dispute with the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority over how much work must be done to help her move around her apartment.

The agency is about to provide her with a handicapped-accessible apartment with extra space to allow an oversized wheelchair to turn. Bowen lives with her 19-year-old son and a caregiver.

Still, Bowen filed a discrimination complaint, saying the agency took too long. Housing officials responded that the agency went well beyond what federal disability law requires at a cost of about $15,000.

"Her special condition requires special equipment," acting Executive Director George Phillips said last week.

The modifications include removing doors and walls, installing an automatic door operator and panic device, demolishing the existing bathroom and installing a special shower, and putting in a sidewalk to the front door. Bowen could move in next month.

In her current apartment, Bowen can't move from a medical bed in the middle of her living room.

In August, 22 firefighters and emergency medical technicians worked for 2½ hours to move Bowen from her apartment so she could have dental work. Emergency crews had to help her back when she returned. The authority widened the door in October.

Bowen does not yet have the wheelchair. The Medicaid government insurance program has not yet said whether it will pay for it.

[mansion]

22 firefighters and emergency medical technicians worked for 2½ hours to move Bowen from her apartment so she could have dental work.

Once you get to be that weight, do you really need teeth anymore? Haven't you eat enough to last a lifetime?

Those firemen and EMTs worked for almost 3 hours to get her lard ass out of that house and she still files a complaint against them - talk about feeling entitled!

[Bikers4Bush]

Jabba the Hut lives!!!

[never4get]

I can only imagine the replies this post is going to generate. Here come.....the fat jokes!!!!!

[Robert A Cook PE]

How many hundred thousand dollars is this "person" (and I use that term loosely) going to end up costing the taxpayers in her selfish self-centered ME ME ME ME demands?

Will she cost more than a million in wasted time, money, and effort?

Outside her inate value as a human, is she worth more than two cents?

[StolarStorm]

This woman needs to be forcibly put in a hospital and her weight reduced.

[Servant of the 9]

Housing officials responded that the agency went well beyond what federal disability law requires at a cost of about $15,000.

How much could Flensing Knives cost?

So9

[End Times Sentinel]

Once you get to be that weight, do you really need teeth anymore? Haven't you eat enough to last a lifetime?

 

And you know most of that food was purchased via food stamps/welfare.  Just more of John Q. Taxpayer's largess...

 

 

Owl_Eagle

”Unleash the Hogs of Peace.”
P.J. O'Rourke Parliament of Whores

[ClearCase_guy]

Long ago, the very rich would be carried about in sedan chairs. Four strong men at each corner, and they would lift it up and carry the gentleman about on their shoulders. Important people, you see, shouldn't have to walk anywhere.

We haven't come very far, if we still have servants do this work. Of course, if you are very large, you need more than 4 people to carry you to your appointments. Perhaps 22 firefighters and EMTs would do.

What puzzles me, is that in the old days, it was the Emperor of Rome who was accorded this sort of treatment. Now, we do it for poor people in public housing. It's a funny sort of progress.

When is it my turn to use public servants as personal servants? I do get a turn, don't I?

[anobjectivist]

Cut her off, make her earn a living, this just makes me sick.

By the time she's able to work she'll be 500 pounds lighter, problems solved.

Whatever happened to responsibility and people being responsible for themselves?

[MEGoody]

"Those firemen and EMTs worked for almost 3 hours to get her lard ass out of that house and she still files a complaint against them - talk about feeling entitled!"

She's wrong to file the complaint. But at person doesn't get to 772 pounds by 'overeating'. This lady has some serious problems. Changing her apartment around isn't going to solve them.

The money would have been better spent on medical and/or psychiatric help so she could move toward some sort of normalcy.

[BrooklynGOP]

Wouldn't lipo be cheaper?

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Un-friggin-believable.

We paid for it!

[wizardoz]

Geez, Americans who are too fat to move, yet there are North Koreans and Africans starving to death. Hey! I have a modest proposal....

[Servant of the 9]

Wouldn't lipo be cheaper?

No, whalers make much less than Plastic Surgeons.

So9

[Blood of Tyrants]

Next she will sue for extra food stamps because she "needs" more caloric intake than most people.

[RightField]

Bowen lives with her 19-year-old son and a caregiver.

Adopted son? Or ... how much did she weigh when she conceived? Or ....

points to ponder ...

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. I am not cold hearted. When she makes the effort to help herself, THEN I will show sympathy.

[Lion Den Dan]

When is it my turn to use public servants as personal servants? I do get a turn, don't I?

======================

You probably pay taxes and have a job. Get to work. You don't get no stinking turn.

[mansion]

I don't know how that would square with the principles of freedom and self-determination - that is, she can get grotesquely obese if she wants to...

But it certainly seems like the humane and cost-effective thing to do! Can you imagine if she lives another 10-15 years?

Forget about her bi-annual dental visits each requiring a team of firemen and EMTs (who instead of saving lives are ferrying some fat woman to and fro) - what if she decides to sue the housing department? She'll probably win a multimillion dollar settlement, and they'll pass a new law requiring the doors on all public housing to be 4 feet wide...

[ikka]

Is there some special law of physics at work here?

I mean, 500 extra pounds (which would still put her at 244) at 3500 calories per pound = 1.75 MILLION extra calories. That is a huge number of Doritos!