As patients get supersized, caregivers are learning to cope

Arizona Star ^ | June 1, 2003 | Bonnie Henry

[sarcasm]

You're in distress. Maybe it's a heart attack. Maybe you've blacked out.

Here comes the ambulance. Trouble is, you're too big for the gurney.

Even worse, you're too big for the ambulance.

"Oh my yes, we regularly get 700-pound people in this town," says Joe Gulotta, deputy chief with the Tucson Fire Department.

"We can fit a 700-pound person in back of the ambulance, but it's not good," says Gulotta.

To do so, they have to strip out the gurney racks in back, place the person on a tarp on the back of the ambulance floor, then use the tarp to slide the person farther into the truck.

Dignified it's not.

Little wonder then, that private Southwest Ambulance in Tucson is about to get its first rescue vehicle specifically designed to transport the extremely large.

"'The whole ambulance is a little bit wider, so it allows for the gurney to go on one side, the caregiver on the other side," says Josh Weiss, public information officer for Southwest Ambulance.

Expected to go into operation in about a month, the new ambulance costs close to a hundred grand - about $15,000 more than your average ambulance.

Besides being wider, it will feature specialized air shocks and heavy-duty suspension, and run lower to the ground - for easier loading and unloading.

Its gurneys will hold 1,500 pounds. The normal limit is 300 to 500 pounds, says Weiss.

To get the patient into the ambulance, the gurney is hooked up to a winch that pulls it and the patient up a ramp and into the ambulance.

Sure beats the old method: a heavy-duty sack - with patient inside - hoisted into the ambulance.

Phoenix already has a heavy-patient ambulance in service, says Weiss. "There's definitely been an increase in these kinds of cases."

Gulotta agrees. "We have bought all 500-pound gurneys."

Asked if Fire Department workers have ever dropped someone, Gulotta answers, "No, but we have gradually let people down to the ground while taking a break."

Once the patient gets to the hospital, special equipment comes into play there as well.

"We have a gurney called the Big Boy that goes to 660 pounds. The normal is 300 pounds," says Viki Alexander, patient care manager for the emergency department at University Medical Center.

The hospital also has extra-wide wheelchairs, as well as 10 or so beds that can support up to 1,000 pounds.

"We have hydraulic scales and lifts," says Alexander. "We can put the sling underneath them and move them from one gurney to another."

St. Mary's Hospital also has larger beds, wider wheelchairs and surgical tables that can hold up to 400-pound patients.

"A few years ago, this was totally unheard of," says Alexander, a nurse for 24 years.

"We've always had one big person here or there, but it's become predominant in the last three years."

Her take: "The population is getting heavier. But it's also probably because of medical advances." Simply put, the morbidly obese are not dying as they once did.

And while airlines have recently increased weight estimates of their passengers, elevators are staying the same, says Roger Bell, chief elevator inspector with the Arizona Industrial Commission.

"I don't think you could put enough people in an elevator to stall it," says Bell. "People don't like to be crowded together."

All the same, I'm eating carrot sticks for lunch - and taking more walks.

[Jason Kauppinen]

Why not just rent a forklift and save some taxpayers money?

[JennysCool]

While I have much sympathy for the "morbidly obese," does anyone have, er, figures on the percentage of those afflicted with a weight-hiking disease vs. those who just eat a lot? Would be interested in knowing.

[freekitty]

Yeah, but how many people are 700 lbs?

[Arpege92]

I'm deeply saddened!

[Archangelsk]

Not a lot, but check out how many 300 and 400 pounders are waddling around.

[Genesis defender]

Let me be the first to say: this is hugh!

[krunkygirl]

In my 5 minute visit inside Taco Bell yesterday to purchase a couple of tacos, at least 2/3's of the people buying and eating lunch were decidedly overweight to obese...approximately 1/2 of those were kids with their parents...to me it is frightening to see what Americans are doing to themselves and, most of all, the indifference(?) in allowing their children to be overweight and unhealthy at ages when, without question, the parents should be in charge of meals and setting the example...yesterday, of course, was just like a hundred other visits to Mc Donald's, Dunkin' Donuts, or Any Mall, USA---this trend is epidemic!

[AdA$tra]

Yeah, but how many people are 700 lbs?

Probably a few more than you think. They just don't get out much. I heard a call on my police scanner the other day where a fire unit was called to help lift a patient into the ambulance.

[Dec31,1999]

In these United States, food has become unprecedentedly inexpensive and ubiquitous. Hence; lot's of really fat people!

I took my family of four to Taco Bell yesterday. We had about 6 tacos for only 4.50, including 8% sales tax! Stopping in a Freindly's just a few days before came to $30 with tax and tip, and we couldn't finish all the food.

[FITZ]

Yeah, but how many people are 700 lbs?

Especially in hot places like Phoenix and Tucson where it can get over 120 degrees. I can see in cold climates maybe getting that big.

[FITZ]

In these United States, food has become unprecedentedly inexpensive and ubiquitous.

I wonder what the 700 pounders do for jobs. Grocery bills around here aren't that cheap ---maybe that's good.

[verity]

Even worse, you're too big for the ambulance.

What's the problem. Use two ambulances. :~)

[lepton]

I wonder what the 700 pounders do for jobs. Grocery bills around here aren't that cheap

Become classified as disabled, and get various government disbursements.

[whipitgood]

I think air conditioning, both in homes and cars, is a big part of the reason for the weight increase. Here in Texas, there are very many huge people. Given how the body attempts to cool itself in hot weather, it seems like a lot of these people will die if exposed to the heat for any length of time. Also, it is much easier to be indoors where it's cool than to go outdoors and endure the heat for any type of physical activity. More weight = more sluggishness. More sluggishness = more weight. Add the embarrasment that these people feel from their appearance and you have additional psychological reasons for eating.

[SLB]

I read somewhere in the past couple of weeks, maybe here of FR, where a man received permission to cremate his mother in her home. She was too large to get out safely and so the coroner and sheriff gave him permission to burn the house. He removed all the belongings and set it on fire. This was out in the country so there was no danger to nearby buildings.

Sad to hear things like this.

[Archangelsk]

I took my family of four to Taco Bell yesterday. We had about 6 tacos for only 4.50, including 8% sales tax! Stopping in a Freindly's just a few days before came to $30 with tax and tip, and we couldn't finish all the food.

And you call this substance food? :-)

Maybe we should start a grass roots movement to return to our own dining tables. My wife, a wonderful cook, handcrafts our meals and our whole family benefits from it. We may eat out maybe 10 times a year and we never go to corporate restaurants (we prefer family-owned, neighborhood places where they really value us as customers).

[Jeff Chandler]

>>percentage of those afflicted with a weight-hiking disease vs. those who just eat a lot? <<

You left out those people with big bones.

[Archangelsk]

You left out those people with big bones.

And super-sized excuses. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself).

[Cicero]

Its gurneys will hold 1,500 pounds.

The Incredible Hulk will be loose this summer.