Fat Patient Stories

This page is dedicated to the innovative skills and resolve of the paramedics, firemen (and women) and other emergency service personnel who have been involved in the often difficult extrication and transport of the obese patients of this world. This page is not designed to ridicule obese patients, but instead as a tribute to the hard effort and difficulties that these patients place on emergency service personnel.

If you are obese and take offence to this page, please, I encourage you to make changes (as hard as they may be) to improve your own health. Obesity is a major problem globally and massively increases your risk of just about every single cancer or disease known on Earth. If you read the following stories, you will note that not one of these obese patients were above the age of 32 – this is because obese people do die much earlier. However difficult it may be to change your lifestyle, not changing it will be worse.

Fat Patient Story One

I attended a 32 year old female who was alledgedly fitting for the first time at home. When we arrived, we treated her as a Status Epilepticus (continuous fitting) with midazolam (a muscle rellaxant). We were told that she had come home from a 4 week stent in ICU after having gastric banding inserted (stomach clamps that litterally involve wire banding that stops your stomach from physically being capable of opening too much). She was an obese lady (approximately 400kg) – she had come home, and even though she had been advised not to eat too much, she had a family member pick her up 22 Quarter Pounders (and no, I don’t hold McDonald’s responsible for this – I like Maccas just as much as the next person – but even I know not to eat 22 Quarter Pounders).

Long story short, she was febrile and it became clear that she was majorly septic. We tried to rush her to hospital, but there were delays in extricating her due to her size. Eventually, she died before we got her to hospital. After the autopsy, we were advised that her gastric banding had litterally caused her stomach to rupture, which caused her to become septic, and die of multi-organ failure in a very short space of time.

Fat Patient Story Two

I attended an 18 year old male who was complaining of chest pain. When we arrived, his mother came out and told us to hurry, because her son had just collapsed. When we found him, he was uncouscious and had no pulse. We attached the monitor and found him in VF (all those squiggly lines) and after three attempts at shocking him, he remained in a refractory assystole (that long flat line that basically says you’re dead).

As I tried to ascertain more history about the patient, before I was happy to call (cease CPR) the patient, I asked his dad if the patient ever took drugs, or had been unwell lately. I was then advised by the Dad that his son was really healthy and had never needed to see a Dr before. If it was not for the severity of the situation and the sadness of losing an 18 year old to a heart attack, I would have found it hard to keep a straight face at the concept that this person thought his 350 kg son, was a healthy person!