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Friday, January 7, 2011

I Wondering When This Suit Was Going To Be Filed

Several years ago, my wife and I watched a Discovery Channel documentary about people with severe eating disorders.  I don't mean a little chunky, or even fat.  I mean so obese that one of them could not get out the door. 

I noticed that while some of these tragedies were Americans, a startling number were British--and eventually, the truth came out: one of these guys on the tragic side of 500 pounds had a part-time aide being sent in by the National Health Service to "help" him.  But not, apparently, to help him eat less.  (He was eating 33,000 calories a day.)

I don't know if this guy was one of those tragedies or not, but this January 7, 2011 article in the The Sun (one of the trashy British tabloids) indicates that someone is filing suit:

MAN mountain Paul Mason plans to SUE the NHS - claiming they ignored his plight as he rocketed towards 70 stone.

Paul - once the world's fattest man - vowed to use any compo to help other patients who need weight-loss ops.
The 50-year-old, of Ipswich, said he begged his local NHS trust for help at 30st.
There is a truly disgusting picture of him that should cause you to stop overeating, perhaps forever. Thirty stone is 420 pounds.  The article refers to when he reached 64 stone--don't do the math, you are just going to get angry.

Where did personal responsibility go in this equation?  I like to eat.  I'm carrying an extra 30-40 pounds.  But to get that overweight requires a bit more than, "I think I'll have a couple extra slices of pizza."  You have to really work hard to consume enough calories to get that overweight.
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2 comments:

  1. Epsilon GivenJanuary 10, 2011 at 3:48 PM

    Sometimes gross obesity is a symptom of a serious medical condition. I can't help but wonder: what the heck was the NHS doing?

    Perhaps the NHS could do nothing--perhaps the person had absolutely no self control--but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Government Health Care, either...

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  2. Epsilon GivenJanuary 10, 2011 at 3:56 PM

    Yikes! Now that I've seen the pictures, and read the article--and learned what effort it took for him to finally get the surgery--I can't help but say this: we want that kind of health care here?!?

    I still don't know where responsibility precisely fits in--yes, I wonder what he could have done about his diet (but the NHS should have helped even with that, I'd expect)--but surely, someone grossly overweight, seeking help, is showing at least a little bit of responsibility.

    This just boggles the mind: the amazing amount of wait, and the pathetic response of government health care.

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