900-pound man

In the news, firefighters in Lansing, Michigan used a forklift to remove a 900-pound man from his home.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14147898/detail.html

First, let me say I have a policy against making fun of overweight people. I am not superstitious, and do not believe in will power. Every moist robot has a different program. This particular 900-pound man has Prader-Willi Syndrome, and that makes him feel hungry all the time. I give him a pass.

Still, there is plenty of humor to be found in this story.

My favorite part is the nurse who called firefighters because, in her professional opinion, the 900-pound man “needed medical help.” Kudos to her. A lesser nurse might have missed the signs.

The man’s brother believes the 900-pound man used his credit card to have food delivered. I wonder how the delivery guy felt. I don’t mean to be cruel, but in that situation, is there any way to NOT feel like Han Solo visiting Jabba the Hut? And how do you hand a pizza to a 900-pound guy? I’m no hero; I think I’d toss the food in his general direction, scream like a little girl, and jump out the second-story window. That’s how I roll.

And what is up with the pizza place that presumably delivered to him five times a day? Did it ever concern them that their Customer of the Month was two pizzas away from forming a black hole? Maybe it all happened gradually and it snuck up on them.

One of the neighbors was interviewed by the press. Her name is Cresha Outlaw. That’s right, her name is Outlaw. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH LANSING, MICHIGAN????? I’m not finding anything in this story that is making me want to visit.

This is the sort of publicity that makes it hard to recruit firemen. It’s a noble profession, but there’s nothing good that happens after your boss says, “Kenny, get the forklift and a tarp.”

Comments

[JG]

Just say no to the donuts and pizza. Jeez.

[Teresa B.]

Hello, I just found your blog/article about my life long friend H. (the 900 lb. man from Lansing).. I just wanted to speak on his behalf, since he can't due to fighting for his life in the hospital (thankfully out of state so news people leave him alone).

H. has had this weight issue since birth practically. Even at 2 years old he was obese, and all through grades K - 12th he suffered extreme obesity. Trust me, I was one of his best friends through school, and out side of school.

H. has been picked on and bullied since pre-school by his peers, and even adults. His mother raised him alone, and was older when she had him. A very loving, sweet, and kind woman who thought the world of her little boy. Saddly back then, there was just no financing or community support to seek medical help for H.

His handful of close friends, and the few family members he had tried to help him the best we could. But as children, then teens, and finally adults we seriously lacked any medical knowledge or money to help him. The best we could do was moral support, and to just be there as friends for him. H is extremely inteligent, funny, caring, and open minded. He has only one problem which is his temper - that he's had since early childhood. When medical personal FINALLY helped him (2007) they gave his obese 'disease' a name, and said the lifelong temper problem was also due to that disease. We always just figured H was angry sometimes because of how often people or kids tortured him about his weight.

He was never a slender person, never knew life even as a child as 'someone skinny or healthy'. So, I do find it troubling to read some of this blog, and comments. I mean, this mentality is a large part of why H *did* suffer from early childhood and through his adult life. He can absolutely not help his hunger, and even in childhood he would throw severely exagerated tantrums for food.

No one understood that he constantly felt as if he were starving inside. I mean, as a little boy he felt that! Imagine not eating for 3 or 5 days, how hungry and ill you would feel. How cranky you would become after a day or so. Now put that all onto a little boy who is as young as 2 years old, if not even younger when he started experiencing this hunger that can not be satisfied.

He also has other life long medical problems, a very slow metabolism for one thing. Thyroid problems, anger issues, and so forth. I'm sure there is more wrong with his health that no one has even checked out yet. H has went through this since he was TWO YEARS OLD. He's not some guy who started getting lazy and fat as a teen, kept packing it on and turned into a 30's some year old morbidly obese man.

His mother who was his entire world died when he was still in high school. He then had to move in with his loser of a half brother, who never took care of him the way a teenager deserved. *sighs* Yes, the brother and in ways the mother let H down, I'm sure his friends let him down in some ways. But Did the mom and friends truly let him down? We fought for years to try and save his life. He also fought HARD as h-ll to get his life on track.

He would try everything to lose weight. None of it ever worked, because it couldn't work. Only no one knew that at the time. He actually retains the fat even when not over eating. Medically I do not know why, I just know I've helped him with weight control and diets, and his body would not lose any weight. Not because he was 'stuffing' it full.

He also did NOT grow up or spend the bulk of his life in Lansing. He ended up there because of his loser brother, Chuck (Charles). Chuck is the one who would deliver the pizzas, who would use H.'s credit card to pay rent, buy booze, and wow a large screen tv that H couldn't even see because he was trapped in his bedroom.

The brother left H back in H's tiny room to die. That is MY opinion. I called social workers who never did a thing. I finally had to stop visiting when the stench, filth, trash, and drugs the brother was doing got to be just to much to handle. I had spent my life time trying to help, and I had lost the battle. But now H is safe away from the brother who used him, and ignored him like he was already a corpse. The trash and filth was through the whole house, and outside of it. Most of it from the brother himself!

Now H is in ICU, fighting bed sores that have a 50% chance of taking his life. He's only 34, my same age. Granted for years I had lived out of state, but what I came home to find broke my heart. My friend had been abused, and left alone in his own feces and trapped for years alone in a small room.. left alone by his own brother to die like an animal.

Try focusing your jokes, and other bs towards the ones who really deserve it. Certainly not H.

[Ina Thal]

To People That are so cruel:

I cannot believe that there are so many cruel and inconsiderate people. Have you been there? Have you felt what they feel. You must lead some pretty sad lives to say what your saying. Making fun of someone. And no matter what that person does you'll still find something wrong with them. And as far as medical people and firefighters, if they can't handle that they shouldn't be doing that kind of work. You sound like a bunch of little kids. Maybe you should go back to school and learn how to be compassionate. Better watch out: Like the old saying goes "What goes around comes around.
May God Bless you and change your rotten heart.

The comment about his private parts was uncalled for. Sounds like a male with his mind strictly on that part and no where else because your lacking in that department.

May God Bless you and change your heartened hearts.

Ina

[Yeeples]

Ick.

[derfasaurus]

I can tell you why they don't make really fat people hockey goalies. Because hockey goals are 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall. Even if you're 6 feet tall and lay down, you're still not 4 feet tall and you're too fat to move fast enough for hockey pucks.

[Markh]

Why don't they make really fat guys into hockey goalies? I've asked every ice hockey fan I know--first they laugh, then they scratch their heads. But I've never gotten an answer.

[Jennifer Tschirhart]

I live outside of Lansing, and was surprised, a little, that we had our own 900lb man just sitting in a house. A month before, the cops were called to a different neighborhood for a supposed dead body. Turned out it was the neighbors feet smell, not a corpse. I bet that REALLY makes you want to visit. Michigan State University is what MAKES this area.

[Andrew Denny]

Pizza The Hut.

[PSUdain]

What's wrong with Lansing, MI??

IT'S IN MICHIGAN. Case closed. At least it's not Ann Arbor, I suppose.

[vasco]

900 pound??

THAT'S REALLY FAAAAAAT....

:-S

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[Nomi]

"[It's illogical to assume the overweight can't keep themselves from eating but the unkind can keep themselves from being unkind. -- Scott]"

Guilty.

[Matt]

I also live in Lansing and support all statements advising people not to visit. It's mostly a question of time. You have a finite amount of time on earth, why spend it visiting a place like Lansing when there are much better places out there. And, Scott, did you happen to see this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/20/suing.god.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

God has responded to the suit in Nebraska! Shit may be about to hit the fan!

[Andy Watt]

Blimey, Sondra's full of the milk of human kindness, eh?

BTW Scott, you're showing some interesting leanings towards social commentary here... keep this up and you'll start being invited to congressional committees. You should turn up on a forklift.

Not having comprehensively trawled the toons for the last few years, have you ever had Michael Moore do a cameo? You could probably have some fun with him and the Pizza company in 3 frames. Could get wordy though. lol!

I've done my usual search for the word "PEN!S" in this post and - surprise surprise - it's not in the post but is in the comments.

Scott, scott scott. What have you started.

[Sondra]

...I’m not finding anything in this story that is making me want to visit....

Are you kidding? If you ever contract a disfiguring disease, they'll throw a tarp over you!

[DF]

Actually, for the record, I mock and make fun of both fat people and smokers openly. I have standards though, fat people that are trying to lose weight or have a medical condition are off limits. As well as smokers who are trying to quit, but I'll admit, there aren't very many who are seriously trying. Both of these groups of people are the way the are by choice, they chose to eat and not exercise, and chose to smoke and both are draining our health care system to a grinding halt. If it takes bringing in higher taxes on the high fat foods and cigarettes to help pay for their sorry asses, so be it.

[Paul H.]

Wow. I had to stop reading after Oli's post on September 21, 2007 at 12:52 AM in which he advocates increased social scorn and humiliation of obese people. And he points out that he's not being a "nazi."

I think I now know why Scott maintains this blog.

It's not to post his thoughts, or to gain more fans, or to promote himself. It's because Scott knows that some of the most interesting and entertaining things in the human experience are the beliefs that people hold on to--especially on controversial subjects--in spite of their own lifetime of experience.

[Squidpup]

I just read the article after skimming most comments. A few recurring themes:

1) how did he pay for the food
2) PWS includes mild retardation
3) National PWS site isn't certain this man suffers from PWS

The news article in the Detroit Free Press mentions that the man 'did computer work from home'.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/NEWS06/70918113/0/SPORTS01

I don't know many mildly retarded people that can do computer work from home, but it does explain where the money was coming from. My sympathies to those that truly suffer from PWS, but it sounds like this guy is just another person using a documented disease as an excuse for bad behavior.

[Candice]

Don't do what I am doing under any circumstances. Only I am allowed to do what I am doing. God said so. :P

~Da big 'C".

[Paul H.]

Posted by: Anfauglir | September 21, 2007 at 02:28 AM : "If the amount you eat makes no difference to how you feel, then eating cake will do as much (or as little) to assuage the cravings as celery."

1. No one said that the amount you eat makes no difference how you reel. If that were the case, you wouldn't need to eat celery and lettuce. You could simply eat smaller portions of normal food.

2. Your "solution" requires that the *content* of what you eat makes no difference in how you feel, not the *amount*. Content is not the same as amount.

3. No one is saying that the content of what you eat makes no difference.

I sort of enjoy reading posts of "solutions" for fat people. Individuals who think they have the "solution" for obesity haven't learned some of the most basic truths about people.

On the other hand, it's kind of sad that people who are apparently intelligent enough to learn to read and write aren't usually taught the most basic and obvious fundamentals of logic and observation.

[jim]

Good job you didn't make fun of him or his situation. It would have been unkind...

[DF]

Don't feel sorry for the 900 pound guy, feel sorry for the guy who lived on the 1st floor beneath him and probably had no idea that he could be crushed to death by a pile of empty pizza boxes at any moment.

If you want a laugh about firefighters on the job, try this news link:

http://my.earthlink.net/article/str?guid=20070917/46edfbc0_3421_1334520070917-1663501145

Those of you from PETA or that are just cat lovers, may want to skip it.

[steph]

Prader-Willi syndrome is especially unfortunate because sufferers don't need to eat even half as much as a regular person to maintain their weight. most only need between 600 and 1000 calories each day, which is one regular meal to most of us.
Imagine only being able to eat that and watch people around you eat so much more and yet they don't gain any weight. Imagine also, excruciating hunger that they feel all the time.
My brother was suspected to have that at one point as he barely ate and was still massively overweight, turned out to be a problem with his blood sugar which is being treated. he is still overweight and probably will never be normal in that regard, but he is one of the most active kids that most people know. he goes to the gym 3 times a week and is following a special weight loss program there for kids, as well as being monitored at school and swimming twice a week. not to mention countless sporting activities.
There are lots of cases where someones weight is not really their fault and all that can be done is to help them as much as possible, while knowing that they will always be overweight no matter what.

[Anfauglir]

"Prader-Willi syndrome is very real. It's awful- imagine extreme, unsatiable hunger every moment of your life. It takes constant, outside intervention to prevent those afflicted from becoming morbidly obese."

If the amount you eat makes no difference to how you feel, then eating cake will do as much (or as little) to assuage the cravings as celery.

If nothing stops the hunger, then eat celery. Eat lettuce. Eat cucumber. Eat shredded carrot. You'll STILL feel hungry - but you won't be so fat you can't sit up.

[Tormod]

How did SA miss this one?

"The health official says he is stable."

I'd say.
He could "stabilize" a small plane.

[fatherjack]

"Health officials said he is in stable condition."

or should be

"Health officials said he is in a stable."?