As Obesity Rises, Health Care Indignities Multiply

The New York Times ^ | November 29, 2003 | RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and GRANT GLICKSON

[Princeliberty]

You know these fat pigs are making everyone else
pay in higher health premiums and higher
taxes for those who get the government to pay for
their health care.

[ECM]

I can't say I have too much sympathy here--if these people want to lose the weight, there are so many ways to do it, and with much less effort than they might think.

All it takes is some willpower...

[Tall_Texan]

Obesity is the fastest-growing major health problem in the United States. In 2000, 31 percent of American adults were obese, up from 23 percent in 1990 and 13 percent in 1960, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is partly because they keep defining obesity downward. A squatty person that is not overweight (just bulky - think Samoans and some Mexicans) is now considered obese with their one-size-fits-all guidelines that don't even take gender into account.

The health care folks know they have a gold mine on their hands with the obesity "crisis" made worse by narrowing the CDC standards of what is considered a "healthy" weight.

Part of the problem is hard to deny (just stroll through a mall sometime) but don't buy their numbers at face value. They're as drummed up as Clinton's economy numbers.

[NautiNurse]

Handling extremely overweight patients — moving them, bathing them — can require several people, when one might do with a person of ordinary size.

This is an understatement. Too bad the story doesn't discuss injuries incurred by health care workers while assisting these people with basic body functions. Finding rotted flesh and other assorted treasures under the massive skin folds is a painful task.

[clee1]

Quit using a steam shovel to feed your face, continuously, and you won't have these problems.

From Morris Day and the Time (the original rappers): When you sit down, you need two seats - extra strong to hold all that meat!

[jim35]

..."The people whose job it is to care for people, a lot of them have the attitude, `You deserve it.' Right now, people with substance abuse issues get more respect and better health care treatment..."


As a nurse, I can explain that one: we don't have to herniate our own discs lifting the huge, massively heavy buttocks of substance abusers. We may not feel that they are morally superior to the super-obese, but by gosh at least they're lighter! Try lifting some 500+ pound patient off the floor sometime, or cleaning them up, or transferring them to a bed from a stretcher... tell me you wouldn't complain!

[clee1]

Historically, obesity was a visible symbol of affluence - only the very rich could eat lots of "rich" (read fatty, sugary foods). They had a high caloric intake and were not subjected to the heavy manual labor of the average person.

It is a sign of the times that even the poorest American has enough to eat and so much leasure time that they eat more calories than they burn in productive work.

What isn't said in this article is that most of these huge bags of flesh DON'T work and are maintaining their bulk off of welfare and disability payments provided by the hardworking taxpayer. I'm sorry, but even if a person IS really disabled, I don't want my tax dollars to provide a 5000 - 7000 calorie-a-day diet.

[Bonaparte]

You could try one of these...

Keiko the killer whale hoisted out of his tank

[Lazamataz]

When Mark Rosenthal suffered a stroke, he was too heavy and wide for a stretcher, so he made the jarring, bouncing dash to the hospital lying on an ambulance floor. The ride injured his back, and he felt as if his own weight would suffocate him.

Look. I'm a man of size. But the first sign you are too f***ing fat is when you lie down and you feel like your own weight will suffocate you.

ATKINS, Mr. Rosenthal.

ATKINS.

[Lazamataz]

Henry Ashley, who weighs 441 pounds, said that during one hospital stay, he fell while trying to use a commode that was too small, broke his tailbone and herniated a spinal disk. He said he spent 14 hours on the floor while hospital workers tried to figure out how to lift him back into his bed. The hospital had a motorized device called a Hoyer lift that uses a sling to raise patients — prices start around $4,000 — but, he said, no one there knew how to use it.

I've used a Hoyer lift on my mom, who is disabled. She's a little slip of a woman, though. I seriously doubt a Hoyer lift would be capable of handling a 441 pound man.

[Prodigal Son]

"And it's little things, too," he said. "Like you try to put on a hospital gown and it's like putting a postage stamp on a rhino's butt."

LOL!

[Adder]

The whole sad story is one big joke.
We are supposed to feel sorry for these pigs?
It the hospital's fault that they don't have construction cranes in place to hoist and shuffle these hogs around?
That is the implication....wait for the lawsuits then hold on to your wallet as the hospitals have to pay for devices the handle these pigs.
This is just part of a well orchestrated scheme like the no smoking campaigns. This one started in 1996 or so with the revision of the ideal weight chart[downward] intantly creating a 20% rise in obesity.
Just watch how much concern is coming your weigh over your health, individually and as a taxpayer sucking more $$'s from your wallets.

[sgtbono2002]

There are things readily available that could be used to help these folks if the effort were made. Hoists for auto engines and tarps sewn for slings. You could place a chain fall in one of the hospital rooms for about $1,000. The problem is hospitals think they have to go to hospital supply houses for their needs, and say medical and the price goes up. Everything medicval has to be chromed or stainless steel, when a painted lift from the garage will do the same job.How much can it cost to build a wooden bench strong enough to hold the fattest person in the world? Hey it may not be a lounge chair but its better then standing.

[angkor]

anyone who travels abroad...perhaps very very few here... cannot but notice how obesity is a uniquely American ...Something about the "psyche" in the general populace?

I've recently returned from 2 1/2 months in Asia.

You're absolutely correct, there are few even moderate fatties and none of the huge people we commonly see here in the States. I think I saw only one local I would consider fat by American standards.

Being overweight myself (but not in the freight-scale category), I was embarrassed to hear the truly amazed comments by the locals about my weight and that of other Westerners (I speak one of the local languages). It shamed me into losing about 30 pounds, which I wanted to do anyway.

My theory is this, shoot it down if you like: America has become a very "closed door" society. We get in the car, go to work, get in the car, come home, close the door, and watch TV or videos or use the computer. Look in your own neighborhood - there are few opportunities to walk to a local cafe, which is certainly the rule in Europe and Asia. Eating your meals at one of dozens of cafes or street stands is an everyday occurance in most Asian countries. Since eating is somewhat of a social activity as well, sitting alone in your house and binging on snacks and huge meals would be considered positively weird there.

Isolation, loneliness, suburbia, the most demanding worklife of the industrialized nations, eating as private pleasure, etc. All of this combines to create a nation of fatties.

[banjo joe]

flesh DON'T work and are maintaining their bulk off of welfare and disability payments provided by the hardworking taxpayer.

Yep, I know more than a few. You can literally eat your way to a disablility check. You're then eligible for subsidized housing, food stamps... on and on.

[The Duke]

We are supposed to feel sorry for these pigs?

Actually, I don't feel nearly as sorry for "these pigs" as I do for those, such as yourself, who apparently only take glee in their misfortune. I suspect it is the very evil that drives us to kick a dog when it's down that causes many of the obese to look away from the world and towards the refrigerator.

The obese have no more problems than anyone else I've ever known, theirs are simply more visible.

[angkor]

I think that the UK must have many of the same problems we are experiencing

I think you're correct that the U.K. and Scotland have a good number of overweight folks, particularly among women.

When I was overseas in Asia, the chunky young women travelers invariably were American or Brit.

And most often Brit since Americans have traditionally been less apt to travel abroad (no time to do it), and particularly now with the media- and government-induced hysteria that the world is a hostile place for Americans (it isn't).