Hospitals challenged by obese patients

The Charleston Post and Courier ^ | July 28, 2002 | SARAH LUNDY

[Judith Anne]

I've had several patients, male and female, who were morbidly obese. The hygiene issues are unbelievable. In addition, all of them, without exception, were very demanding. Just to get them to roll over so they can use a bedpan can be, to put it mildly, difficult.

It's my experience that they wanted to be waited on hand and foot all day. Staff was strained mentally as well as physically. Skin breakdown was already present when most of them came in. There were no hospital gowns that fit. It's hard to find a vein for IV meds.

Other nurses may have different experiences, more positive ones. I'd be glad to hear another point of view.

Oh--and one more thing--they tend to break beds, scales, wheelchairs, etc.

[FITZ]

There are people with real health problems that cause obesity, but for he most part it is laziness and lack of self control.

I don't know if that's the reason. I have a friend who became very heavy and I know from her childhood there were issues with food that I think caused it. Food was given as a reward and I think associated with parental love. I see people filling their cupboards with all kinds of junk food and soft drinks and raising their kids to think those are foods.

I think losing 10 pounds is hard enough but I don't know how someone finds the self control to lose 200 pounds.

[Jonathon Spectre]

When hospitals can't accommodate patients, "it makes us feel like freaks," said Sightler.

Oh, don't you worry about that. Just have another Snickers. It's not in the least unusual to weigh over 500 lbs. Plenty of people do. I know at least... ummm... well...

Fleming pointed to a recent employee survey as another factor to be considered, stating many medical workers worry about the risk of moving larger patients. Back injuries from lifting patients lead to missed work and medical expenses, expensive costs hospitals want to avoid.

My poor girlfriend is always straining her back from having to move these fat f**ks around. Sympathy in the Spectre house: ZERO. If you have a glandular condition it's one thing, but most of these butterballs have a different kind of condition, "Couch-snack-itis".

And just how the f**k does someone get to the point where they weigh more than FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS? I mean, who is bringing these things their food? If a member of my family got so fat they couldn't get up to get their own food, I certainly wouldn't help them ONE BIT to get any fatter. I'd just hang some air fresheners around their bed and hand them a bedpan, some water, and some multivitamins and tell them "You'll eat when you can drag your disgusting, gargantuan bulk out of bed and get it yourself."

[tall_tex]

Or would want to do it.

[AZLiberty]

When this woman flies on Southwest Airlines, she doesn't pay for an extra seat. She takes up a whole cargo container.

[weegee]

Charge them for two hospital stays like the airlines.

And buffets should charge double too.

< /sarcasm >

[linn37]

so instead of counseling people to lose weight we rearrange the furniture to make them feel more comfortable? Thats bassackards

[Judith Anne]

Most of the over 400-500 pounders get a disability check. Enough to pay for food, I guess...

[Jhoffa_]

Sounds like something the free market can cure..

If there's a legitimate need, there's a business that caters to it.

Heavy duty chairs, hydraulic lift beds, 3.0 and wider doors, tiled & concrete shower stalls, floor mounted or custom concrete & tile commodes.

There's allot that could be done if the need is great and it is common. Doctors who specialize in this kind of thing could talor their facilities around the patient and if it's as bad as they say, probably draw people from all over the country who have enough problems without having to concern themselves with getting stuck in a doorway.

But, of course.. This isn't about creative problem solving is it? This is about attacking McDonalds, another industry that makes money catering to their customers needs and desires..

Just as you said.

[Judith Anne]

I wish we could. Each of them needs a private room, too. There just isn't the physical room for a bari bed and a regular one as well...

[Hildy]

I know a wonderful nurse who severely hurt her back and is now on disability (She used to be a dancer, and cannot dance anymore. Honestly) while trying to lift an morbidly obese woman onto a toilet. It's a huge (excuse the pun) problem for everyone involved.

[mhking]

The 5'4" 523-pound woman

Brings new meaning to the phrase "Five by five."

I know, I know - it's insensitive...but I've never been known to be the most 'politically correct' individual...

[weegee]

While I joked about buffet pricing, health nazis have discussed prohibiting the availablity of "all you can eat" restaurants.

[reg45]

when I was single, cute, and weighed 120 lbs. I had trouble getting a date...

Is that why you moved to Alaska - to get dates?

[Ditter]

In my case, I blame my excess weight on freeping & the 95+ degree temperatures outside.

[Judith Anne]

This may or may not be about attacking McDonald's. But the morbidly obese rarely pay their own way, in my experience. Using private enterprise to spend public money to take care of the morbidly obese by designing bari only hospitals doesn't sound all that great to me...That said, some hospitals I know of have bari rooms...

[Quigley]

If it cost $240,000.00 to change 4 standard size rooms into 2 large rooms I think somebody is being ripped off big time. I smell kickbacks.

[Jhoffa_]

That said, some hospitals I know of have bari rooms...

There you go.

But, regardless I am sure if there is a need and money to be made, regardless of who it's coming from solutions can be found.

I just don't want to see people tearing down American industry with the excuse that someone, somewhere got stuck in a door once.

[per loin]

From D.R.Humo's site:

The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine put it most clearly: "There is an inverse relationship between smoking and body weight."(3)

The same publication also gave a clear warning, for those who wish to heed it, about obesity later in life. The weight difference between smokers and non-smokers gets larger and larger with age: "Tobacco smokers generally weigh less than nonsmokers, and this difference increases with the duration of smoking and with age."(4) Thus, there is a double weight-loss benefit associated with smoking. You might start smoking to lose only a few unwanted pounds. Or, you might start smoking for reasons totally unrelated to weight loss. But either way, you are giving yourself protection against middle-age obesity.