480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch

[Heyo]

Forgive me if this has been posted already.... It may have, but I haven't seen it and I did look..

I think it's just a really sad story... nobody helped this poor woman.

480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch

STUART, Fla. -- A 480-pound Martin County woman has died after emergency workers tried to remove her from the couch where she had remained for about six years.

Gayle Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.

Everyone going inside the home had to wear protective gear. The stench was so powerful they had to blast in fresh air.

A preliminary autopsy on the the four-foot, ten-inch woman lists the cause of death as "morbid obesity." But officials want to know more about the circumstances inside the home.

Investigators say Grinds lived with a man named Herman Thomas, who says he tried to take care of her the best he could. He has told them he tried repeatedly to get her up, but simply couldn't. No charges have been filed, but officials are looking into negligence issues.

Emergency workers had to remove some sliding glass doors and lift the couch, with Grinds still on it, to a trailer behind a pickup truck. Removing her from the couch would be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin had literally become one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.

<snip>

link: http://www.wftv.com/news/3643877/detail.html

Heyo

[nostamj]

1. wow, she lost 120 pounds since yesterdays' post

which, btw, went STRAIGHT to the Lounge...

[rkc3]

4. The couch weighed in at 120 pounds after it was removed.

[WI_DEM]

2. interesting thread on it in the lounge

I feel for that poor woman.

[UdoKier]

3. Incomprehensible.

What a sad non-life she must have lived.

[redqueen]

5. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=1521217&mesg_id=1521217

[pagerbear]

6. There was more going on than obesity

I used to be 450 lbs. There are people who are 500 and 600 lbs who can go to the bathroom themselves.

[redqueen]

7. I'm sure she had some pretty serious mental issues

It makes me sad to even think about. :(

[Osama_Bin_Winnin]

9. Thanks for that image

about the bathroom

[pagerbear]

17. I'm here for ya

[lanparty]

8. Someone should be charged in this case ...

If she couldn't get up, that means someone was feeding her. It should be pretty simple for a bed-bound person to loose weight. Their caretakers simply need to stop feeding them so damn much. If they want more, they'll have to get off the the fucking couch.

Someone enabled this person to get this way. That person should be held responsible in some way.

[liontamer]

10. i don't think somebody who's 4'10

can way 480lbs just by eating too much. Something else had to underly her obesity. I eat way too much and while I'm not skinny anymore i'm nowhere close to that

[IronLionZion]

11. exactly

you don't get morbidly obese just from eating. There must be some medical condition. And really large people can still get up and walk around.

[lanparty]

13. Yes, you do ...

The other component is the "lack-of" ... lack of doing anything else but eating and watching TV.

There may be a medical condition that underlies someone's voracious appetite. I know it all to well. I have been both fat an thin. But being morbidly obese is truly a choice NOT TO TRY to stop eating so much.

A very simple exercise regimen (walking) is enough to short-circuit the whole process. A heavy person needs a lot more calories to move themselves around than a thin person.

Unless there is some underlying mental illness about being in open spaces, or breaking your leg, etc... morbid obesity truly is a CHOICE to give in to a disposition that most people fight.

No one really CHOOSES to be morbidly ill. But sometimes you have to CHOOSE to accept discomfort in order to avoid illness, or personal destruction. You must CHOOSE to accept the discomfort of walking if your a little overweight. You must CHOOSE to accept that you will be hungry if you wish to improve. You must CHOOSE to bear your shame for getting that way in the first place and ACCEPT it in order to OVERCOME it.

We are all dealt different hands in life. How we play it is what determines our character. Some people win, and some people lose. But morbid obesity is just plain folding. It's giving up.

[liontamer]

14. it's not easy

some people are genetically morbidly obese, no regimen of diet and exercise can help them. There is a virus that can cause obesity, and brain damage could lead to obesity.

Sumo wrestlers become huge through hard work and constant effort. I don't believe her caretaker would give her the amount of food required for her to eat herself to that weight. He probably wouldn't have the time, energy, or money.

If she was stuck to the couch something must have been very wrong for a long time. I don't believe that she could get that way from avoiding the discomfort of even rolling over.

[lanparty]

16. Duhh, of course it's not easy ...

...

Nothing worthwhile EVER is.

Some people have a genetic disposition to eating too fucking much. It's called a greedy gene that makes them over-prepare for winter. It has survived since sometimes winters are pretty fucking bad and the thin people die off from not eating enough in the fall.

Yes, there ARE diets and exercise programs that can help morbidly obese people. All they have to do is FOLLOW them. Obesity is NOT some form of curse that cannot be lifted. It can be calculated by the calories consumed vs the calories expended. If you stop eating so fucking much and get some exercise, you'll get smaller ... PERIOD!!!!!

You know, there have been cases of morbidly obese children who would fail to loose weight in the hospital despite a tightly controlled low calorie diet administred by dieticians and nurses. It puzzled the shit out of doctors. That is, until they caught the sick ass munchausin by proxy mother sneaking candy bars into the kid's room.

What you mean to say is that some people simply will not or cannot FOLLOW diet and exercise regimes that would cure their morbid obesity. Well, obesity is NOT like cancer or diabetes. It's not like anemia. One has to actively pursue this disease CONSTANTLY in order for it to even remain.

There is no brain damage that will change the second law of thermo-dynamics. If you consume 3000 calories in a day and USE 3000 calories, you cannot get fat.

Just like an alcoholic or recovering drug addict, you must CHOOSE to accept the pain of withdrawal. You must CHOOSE to abstain and accept the loss of not having your obsession fullfilled. You must CHOOSE to get off your fucking ass and do a little exercise beyond traveling to and from the food pantry.

I have no doubt that some people have terrible obsessions and addictions that are diseases. Many, many people have them and CHOOSE to deny themselves these satisfactions for the sake of their own health. Some people just plain fucking give up. In my humble opinion, the population of non-ambulatory morbidly obese people consist mostly of people who gave up.

[lanparty]

12. Uhhh, yes they can ...

It's a simple matter of eating A LOT!!!!!

There have been 6 foot tall men reaching the weight of 1200 lbs. I think it's 100% feasible for a 4'10" woman to reach 480lbs just by stuffing her face nonstop without doing any exercise.

[Heyo]

15. I am curious...

..what her eating habits/daily calorie intake was...

Whether she really was eating a lot of food or Whether no matter what she did eat she gained weight.. I have to think the lack of exercise had to be a contributing factor... I don't think she just one day sat down on the couch and then never got up from that point.. she probably grew more and more lethargic and got up fewer and fewer times until it just became too hard.

The husband figure that was in the house seems to have a bit of diminished capacity and possibly did not know what to do..

I found a more detailed article in Palm Beach Post where ti described the house being a mess, pictures knocked off the wall and what not, as well as feces smeared on the walls (sorry for the visual)..

I find it hard to believe that nobody cared enough or knew enough to intervene here..

There HAD to be an amount of food she could've eaten where should would have lost weight.. I mean.. lets say she ate NO food (not that I am advocating starving herself).. then she would eventually lose weight, correct? Well what amount of food would have nourished her yet allowed her to lose weight... and then maybe be able to exercise her upper body a little to begin to get mobile.. (the fused to the couch problem would also have to be addressed)..

Probably up until she had this respiratory distress problem.. her condition was survivable, albeit extremely difficult.

Bless her soul, this poor woman...

Heyo