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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - More on the couch-bound woman- very disturbing... (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 8/18/2004 10:10:12 AM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
This is far beyond laziness or gluttony.

When you start urinating and defecating on yourself, you've moved on into the metal illness region.

Obviously she had lost her mind. Some people are just plain crazy.

Her b/f was not so crazy, however. After all, had he done something about this while his ~~meal-ticket~~ g/f was still alive, the gov't checks for rent and food might have stopped coming in, and the lazy, Budweiser-swilling bum would then have to get a job. He couldn't have given a damn about her beyond the $$. Notice how he is now among the missing, as are her adopted children....

Posted: 8/18/2004 10:48:26 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Question for the doctors.

Why can't they liposuction people like this?
I understand people die from liposuction, and especially when it is overdone.
But shouldn't a huge person be able to stand losing 10 lbs at a time, or some such number?
Are they too weak to recover and they get infected?
Wouldn't the benefits outweigh the risks?

Just brief rambling from me, there are those more expert than I. For a surgical weight-loss intervention to work, the patient must have a desire to lose the weight. Prior to undergoing gastric bypass or volume reduction ("stapling"), they must have demonstrated motivation and attempts to lose weight. There are those that still manage to gain the weight back despite these things. Liposuction itself generally seems to be more of a cosmetic procedure, with the big weight loss coming from the above procedures. In other words, she was too far gone for liposuction to fix the problem.

This unfortunate situation illustrates the many levels of psychosocial dysfunction. She didn't seem motivated to change. Her family situation was chaotic and enabling. She had real medical problems - broken bones, and I'd almost bet a new Mega lower that she had a multiplicity of other issues (diabetes, heart disease, gastroesoph reflux) as well as possibly psychiatric disease. Morbid obesity wasn't the proximate cause of her death, I think. Was it the massive stroke? the heart attack? the blood clot that shot to her lungs? Don't know, but these are all big risks.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:09:27 AM EDT

[#3]

"The bathroom is just too far to walk to, Ill just go right here on the couch. Hey, that wasnt so bad, why did I ever bother using the toilet?! Now I have absolutely no reason to get off the couch." This is the part that bothers me the most. A lot of people will talk shit about Iraq being a dirty filthy country, but in one year there I never seen any house even coming close to the one that is described in this story.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:17:52 AM EDT

[#4]

Damn.

I'm a big believer in personal responsibility, but damn, I'm speechless...

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:27:04 AM EDT

[#5]

Call me a cold-hearted bitch, but I have absolutely no sympathy and no sorrow for someone so lazy that they won't even get off the couch to take a shit.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:28:54 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Call me a cold-hearted bitch, but I have absolutely no sympathy and no sorrow for someone so lazy that they won't even get off the couch to take a shit.

Heheheh.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:29:11 AM EDT

[#7]

Betcha there's some loose change in THAT couch.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:35:10 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.

Literally.

I'm always appalled that people would allow themselves to let their weight get out of control, but then again, I'm also appalled that people will drink alcohol to the point that it has a negative effect on their lives, and also I'm appalled that people would use hard drugs. I don't get it.

It all stinks of a total lack of discipline, will power, and self control.

I consider those people to be little better than animals.

Very few animals will ordinarily engage in self destructive behavior, but humans often will.

I'm not saying that you're an animal if you drink in moderation or have a bit of a belly on you or even if you use drugs with moderation, but if it's wrecking your life, you've got a very serious problem and the problem begins and ends with YOU.

CJ

Well put... I agree 100%, which is not to say that I don't feel some compassion for her. I do, but some folks are beyond help and only drag you down with them.
Did anyone see "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" ; the scene where HST and Nixon are in the men's room and HST asks Nixon "what about the doomed?"
Nixon replies "F**k the doomed"

My point, some people can't be helped, don't want help, and will fight you rather than accept it.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:40:55 AM EDT

[#9]

omg. 4'10"?
that's even worse than I originally thought
if shoe couldn't get to the kitchen why did people bring her food. they should have only brought her water until she lost enough weight to move

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:48:34 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Betcha there's some loose change in THAT couch.

I wouldn't touch that one with a barge-pole....

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:55:44 AM EDT

[#11]

I'm sure there's loose somethings, just not change

Quoted:
Betcha there's some loose change in THAT couch.

Posted: 8/18/2004 11:58:37 AM EDT

[#12]

I'd a hit it!!!

Posted: 8/18/2004 1:06:05 PM EDT

[#13]

a gal that big could have a bright future in the porn industry.
Some guys like em really really really big.

Posted: 8/18/2004 1:07:35 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
I'd a hit it!!!

STUNT COCK!

Posted: 8/18/2004 1:13:53 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
I'd a hit it!!!

How could you do it?

I did what I had to do.

No, I mean literally how could you do it? The [woman's] so fat the sheer mechanics of it are mind-boggling!

Posted: 8/18/2004 1:24:44 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Question for the doctors.

Why can't they liposuction people like this?
I understand people die from liposuction, and especially when it is overdone.
But shouldn't a huge person be able to stand losing 10 lbs at a time, or some such number?
Are they too weak to recover and they get infected?
Wouldn't the benefits outweigh the risks?

Just brief rambling from me, there are those more expert than I. For a surgical weight-loss intervention to work, the patient must have a desire to lose the weight. Prior to undergoing gastric bypass or volume reduction ("stapling"), they must have demonstrated motivation and attempts to lose weight. There are those that still manage to gain the weight back despite these things. Liposuction itself generally seems to be more of a cosmetic procedure, with the big weight loss coming from the above procedures. In other words, she was too far gone for liposuction to fix the problem.

This unfortunate situation illustrates the many levels of psychosocial dysfunction. She didn't seem motivated to change. Her family situation was chaotic and enabling. She had real medical problems - broken bones, and I'd almost bet a new Mega lower that she had a multiplicity of other issues (diabetes, heart disease, gastroesoph reflux) as well as possibly psychiatric disease. Morbid obesity wasn't the proximate cause of her death, I think. Was it the massive stroke? the heart attack? the blood clot that shot to her lungs? Don't know, but these are all big risks.

Exactly right...also, liposuction is actually a fairly traumatic event (as is any surgery on someone in that condition)...her health may very well of actually made her a poor candidate for surgery.
Double also...Who was going to pay for it?

BTW this happened in the county just North of the one I work in...I know some of the firefighters who removed her from that house...It wasnt pretty.

There are 5 patients in similar condition (weight/health...not filth) who we respond to on a regular basis.

Posted: 8/18/2004 2:26:55 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Call me a cold-hearted bitch, but I have absolutely no sympathy and no sorrow for someone so lazy that they won't even get off the couch to take a shit.

That's by far the best laugh I've ever got from an ARFCOM post.

I feel the same exact way.

Posted: 8/18/2004 2:45:25 PM EDT

[#18]

Feces, unhealed bloody, rotten bed sores, scabbing and urine probably formed a glue-like substance. Stuff like this has happened in convalescent hospitals, too. There, old and disabled people aren't rotated. The sheets become stuck to the sores.

The fibers in the couch stuck unto the oozing sores and scabs/scar tissue formed in and throughout the couch fibers.

That is why I want a bottle of pills next to me when I get old.

Posted: 8/18/2004 2:58:16 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Uh, personal responsibility folks. It is an amazing concept. THis woman wanted to live the way she did, so she did.

Oh, and consequences also, personal responsbility and consequences.

It's true that she chose to live that way - but she obviously didn't have health insurance, so we ALL had to pay the consequences of her choices - including the flat-bed truck to haul her and her couch to the ER.

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:04:44 PM EDT

[#20]

Disposing of both Gayle Grinds and the couch was a task easier than expected. Doctors and hospital staff carried and left the two on the parkway with the hopes that illegal aliens would take them away. Short of a miracle, it worked, the following day the stuck-to duo were gone.

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:16:05 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:

...... but she obviously didn't have health insurance, so we ALL had to pay the consequences of her choices - including the flat-bed truck to haul her and her couch to the ER.

Please!! She had the best damn insurance our money can buy, Medicaid. Freaking Blue Cross and Blue Shield would have made no difference. I have seen some ridiculous arguements for universal health care, but this takes the cake!!

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:21:27 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
Quoted:

...... but she obviously didn't have health insurance, so we ALL had to pay the consequences of her choices - including the flat-bed truck to haul her and her couch to the ER.

Please!! She had the best damn insurance our money can buy, Medicaid. Freaking Blue Cross and Blue Shield would have made no difference. I have seen some ridiculous arguements for universal health care, but this takes the cake!!

um - my point is that WE ALL PAY for Medicare. Individuals and companies pay for private insurance for people that WORK and earn it, but MY TAXES pay for Medicare.

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:29:41 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
This is far beyond laziness or gluttony.

When you start urinating and defecating on yourself, you've moved on into the metal illness region.

Obviously she had lost her mind. Some people are just plain crazy.

I think you hit on it buddy, if not a physical condition, surely a mental one...........

anyway today I feel mellow , so RIP large Marge, go with god.

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:37:40 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

That is why I want a bottle of pills next to me when I get old.

Don't worry T_J. We'll shoot you.

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:47:05 PM EDT

[#25]

she must have looked like a beached whale

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:48:20 PM EDT

[#26]

I worked for the phone company for a couple of years. When you get service calls to residences all over the place, from time to time you encounter a bad one.

The worst one I ever was in was pretty freaking bad. It was the house of an elderly lady who, it was obvious to my EXPERIENCED eye, clearly had Alzheimer's and she was living alone.

Cleaning...what's that? Or maybe she thought she'd just done it.

The carpeted floor was STICKING to my boots and squished.

There was a bowl of milk gone bad on the floor for the cat. You could NOT smell it because the
stench of the rest of the house was FAR more overpowering. She had a dog, too, and both dog and cat shit was on the floor in several locations

Dishes piled up in the kitchen and on tables, with ROTTING food on them.

I won't even bother to describe the rest of the rooms in the house. Let's just say the theme has
already been well established.

It was SO bad and the woman was in SUCH need of assistance that I called my supervisor and discussed the matter with him in some detail. He came to visit the house (We cooked up some reason for him to "check my work") and he saw how bad it was for himself. Well, my supervisor is a very good man, and he's also a reserve Sheriff's deputy. He had to be careful not to cross the line where one job interferes with another, but he did contact the lady's daughter and explained the situation. She wasn't aware of how much her mother had deteriorated, so she came down within a few days and apparently, the situation got sorted out. A week or so after my visit, I had other jobs in the area and the filthy furniture and carpet were by the street for the trash and the situation had clearly been improved for the better. At a later date, I met the daughter (more jobs to do in the area and she was out front of that house working) after a job I'd done in the area and told her that I was the one that had noticed the problem, and she gave me a good hug and thanked me for helping to look out for other people. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my time with the phone company.

I feel sorry for those who CAN'T help themselves, but I feel contempt for those who just WON'T.

CJ

Posted: 8/18/2004 3:58:36 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Question for the doctors.

Why can't they liposuction people like this?
I understand people die from liposuction, and especially when it is overdone.
But shouldn't a huge person be able to stand losing 10 lbs at a time, or some such number?
Are they too weak to recover and they get infected?
Wouldn't the benefits outweigh the risks?

Just brief rambling from me, there are those more expert than I. For a surgical weight-loss intervention to work, the patient must have a desire to lose the weight. Prior to undergoing gastric bypass or volume reduction ("stapling"), they must have demonstrated motivation and attempts to lose weight. There are those that still manage to gain the weight back despite these things. Liposuction itself generally seems to be more of a cosmetic procedure, with the big weight loss coming from the above procedures. In other words, she was too far gone for liposuction to fix the problem.

This unfortunate situation illustrates the many levels of psychosocial dysfunction. She didn't seem motivated to change. Her family situation was chaotic and enabling. She had real medical problems - broken bones, and I'd almost bet a new Mega lower that she had a multiplicity of other issues (diabetes, heart disease, gastroesoph reflux) as well as possibly psychiatric disease. Morbid obesity wasn't the proximate cause of her death, I think. Was it the massive stroke? the heart attack? the blood clot that shot to her lungs? Don't know, but these are all big risks.

Exactly right...also, liposuction is actually a fairly traumatic event (as is any surgery on someone in that condition)...her health may very well of actually made her a poor candidate for surgery.
Double also...Who was going to pay for it?

BTW this happened in the county just North of the one I work in...I know some of the firefighters who removed her from that house...It wasnt pretty.

There are 5 patients in similar condition (weight/health...not filth) who we respond to on a regular basis.

Every service has a couple. Did you see the issue of JEMS last year dedicated to care / transport of the morbidly obese? There are services who do it often enough that they're equipping special rigs just for it.

Posted: 8/18/2004 4:10:22 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Question for the doctors.

Why can't they liposuction people like this?
I understand people die from liposuction, and especially when it is overdone.
But shouldn't a huge person be able to stand losing 10 lbs at a time, or some such number?
Are they too weak to recover and they get infected?
Wouldn't the benefits outweigh the risks?

Just brief rambling from me, there are those more expert than I. For a surgical weight-loss intervention to work, the patient must have a desire to lose the weight. Prior to undergoing gastric bypass or volume reduction ("stapling"), they must have demonstrated motivation and attempts to lose weight. There are those that still manage to gain the weight back despite these things. Liposuction itself generally seems to be more of a cosmetic procedure, with the big weight loss coming from the above procedures. In other words, she was too far gone for liposuction to fix the problem.

This unfortunate situation illustrates the many levels of psychosocial dysfunction. She didn't seem motivated to change. Her family situation was chaotic and enabling. She had real medical problems - broken bones, and I'd almost bet a new Mega lower that she had a multiplicity of other issues (diabetes, heart disease, gastroesoph reflux) as well as possibly psychiatric disease. Morbid obesity wasn't the proximate cause of her death, I think. Was it the massive stroke? the heart attack? the blood clot that shot to her lungs? Don't know, but these are all big risks.

Exactly right...also, liposuction is actually a fairly traumatic event (as is any surgery on someone in that condition)...her health may very well of actually made her a poor candidate for surgery.
Double also...Who was going to pay for it?

BTW this happened in the county just North of the one I work in...I know some of the firefighters who removed her from that house...It wasnt pretty.

There are 5 patients in similar condition (weight/health...not filth) who we respond to on a regular basis.

Every service has a couple. Did you see the issue of JEMS last year dedicated to care / transport of the morbidly obese? There are services who do it often enough that they're equipping special rigs just for it.

You got THAT right...When I say "5 patients like that"...I mean in MY station's zone. (my dept. has 15 stations, most have at least one or two morbidly obese frequent flyers)

We have a "special" backboard stored at one of the stations in each battallion, they were built by our fleet maintinence division...and we respond the step van from the purchasing division if we have to transport.

Sadly, these people may not realize it...but they basically have an "un-official" DNRO.

Posted: 8/18/2004 4:39:23 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:

Very few animals will ordinarily engage in self destructive behavior, but humans often will.
CJ

I don't have the exact literature citation, but there was a study where rats were offered free access to food or cocaine. They chose the cocaine and starved. Addiction is destructive, and not necessarilly willful. Animals don't ordinarilly have the luxury of getting to self-destructive behavior, since you've gotta climb pretty high on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a species before doing it. As others mentioned, this lady may have had an addictive personality that helped things along.

Posted: 8/18/2004 4:51:52 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Sadly, these people may not realize it...but they basically have an "un-official" DNRO.

"Do Not Resuscitate" Order?

Posted: 8/18/2004 6:20:00 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Sadly, these people may not realize it...but they basically have an "un-official" DNRO.

"Do Not Resuscitate" Order?

Yup, that's what he means. Chest compressions are useless on the really huge ones, impedence is such that defib doesn't work worth squat, they're almost impossible to start an IV on, especially when pulseless, and it's a bitch to intubate 'em. Then you factor the time involved in just getting them loaded and starting transport, and they're pretty much dead right there. With most patients, ABC means airway, breathing, circulation. On the big ones, it's ambulate before carry.

Our department doesn't automatically dispatch an engine crew with the rescue, but we have at least two patients where the CAD instructions automatically include an engine crew just for lift assistance.

Posted: 8/18/2004 10:24:07 PM EDT

[#32]

Reminds me of more than one house I have been in, and she reminds me of a few people I have met. They are out there; you just don't see them out and about in public. I recall one female who was about her size from back in my days working in the jail who was an absolute PITA to deal with when she went off her meds.......she's dead now too.
Some of you people have absolutely no compassion.

Posted: 8/19/2004 12:09:55 AM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:
So, is Rosie O'Donnell going to play the lead role in the made for TV movie?

Posted: 8/19/2004 3:43:20 AM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:

Do y'all still call them VLPs, for Very Large Person?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - More on the couch-bound woman- very disturbing... (Page 2 of 2)

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