Living LARGE In The UK

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Friday, Jan 07 2011 9PM 9°C 12AM 8°C 5-Day Forecast
It's not my fault, the NHS should have helped: The former world's fattest man to sue health service for his weight gain

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:17 PM on 7th January 2011

A man who once weighed nearly 70 stone[I don't know how much this is in pounds. ]is to launch legal action against the NHS, claiming they failed to help him as his size soared.

Former postman Paul Mason received life-saving gastric surgery last year binge-eating his way to gargantuan size.

But the 50-year-old, who now weighs in at a comparatively small 37 stone, said he should have been helped years ago.



Fattest man: Paul Mason received a vital operation after ballooning to nearly 70 stone but plans to sue the NHS for ignoring his pleas for help

Mr Mason, who was eating 20,000 calories a day at his heaviest, claims he sought help from his GP after ballooning to 30 stone.

Instead of receiving a treatment programme to manage his weight, he has complained he was told in 1996: 'Ride your bike more.'


More...
The £1million cost to the British taxpayer of caring for the world's fattest man
First picture of the world's heaviest man is mobile again after losing an incredible 20 stone through gastric bypass surgery

He also says he was sent to a dietician, rather than the eating disorders specialist he had asked to see, after his weight hit 64 stone.

'I want to set a precedent so no one else has to get to the same size - and to put something back into society,' Mr Mason told The Sun.



Binging: Paul Mason was eating 20,000 calories a day at his heaviest




Life-saving op: Paul Mason is lifted into place ahead of the surgery that helped him lose 20 stone in a year

He has pledged to put any compensation he receives if successful towards helping other obese people lose weight.

An NHS spokesman said of the purported lawsuit: 'As we have not heard from Mr Mason, it would be inappropriate to speculate.'

Mr Mason's care bill costs taxpayers an estimated £100,000 a year and is believed to have topped £1million over the past 15 years.

At the height of his binge eating, he was consuming 20,000 calories every day - ten times the recommended daily intake for a man.



Increased mobility: Paul Mason now uses a motorised wheelchair to get around after surgery helped him shed 20 stone

Though he has vowed to help other people in need of weight loss operations, the cost of Mr Mason's condition will have enraged patients on NHS waiting lists, commentators said this week.


'It’s such a shame that so much time and resources have to go to help one person, these nurses will be sorely missed at a time when public finances are squeezed,' said Charlotte Linacre, Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance.


'Although there is sympathy for people struggling with health issues, taxpayers will not feel this is a fair allocation of funds as they sit on waiting lists while footing the bill for his personal care.'



© Associated Newspapers Ltd

[Gob]

980 pounds....

[rubato]

Even rolling over would be an athletic feat at that weight.

Holy shit.

Even after 'slimming down' he's 518 lbs! A total whale.

I don't think I could pick that much weight up (quite a bit over 300lbs) and walk to the next room to take a piss. Even if I really had to go.

Is it cruel to say that natural selection is supposed to take care of things like this? Is it? Do I have to be more compassionate about this than I am about a drunk driver who kills him/her-self? Ken Lay dying of heart failure?



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

980 pounds....

Geez....

That's not a large man....

It's a small hippo....

[Daisy]

The person he ought to be suing is the person who was bringing him 20,000 calories a day - I actually wonder how a person on benefits can afford to buy that amount of food?

Ballooning to 30 stone doesn't happen overnight, and the GP was right in the first instance to send him to a dietician, you can bet your arse he didn't even try to follow the healthy eating plan given to him then but continued to blame everyone else but himself on his problems.

Rule of thumb, if you are too fat to get up and get out of the house to buy your own food then maybe that's nature trying to tell you something. It is NOT up to the GP or the NHS to fix your problem it is UP TO YOU! I hope his case gets thrown out before this man costs the taxpayers any more money.

This former fatty has no sympathy, I worked damned hard to lose my weight. It takes effort and commitment NOT surgery and self pity.

[Guinevere]

Daisy, I agree -- except one point --- surgery is *not* the easy way out. It takes the same commitment to losing weight as without surgery. And if you screw up and eat the wrong things the consequences are even more dire than if you hadn't had surgery. You also completely do without some things - like beer and Champers. Honestly, after learning much more about the process, I have much more respect for those that go through it.

[Daisy]

No way of losing weight is easy, if it was the whole world would have a BMI of 22.5.

But, for him to put the blame on the NHS for "not helping" him is a disgrace.

[Gob]

The culture of "someone else is to blame", is to blame.

[The Hen]

I blame someone else for this.

[loCAtek]

The person he ought to be suing is the person who was bringing him 20,000 calories a day

That baffles me too. My mom was a bloated sea cow most of her life (There was no such thing as left overs in our house. If you put the food not finished from dinner in the fridge; it was gone the next day.) However at one crisis point she went on a 6 MONTH fluid fast. It was clinic assisted of course, but for the first time in her life she lost weight, instead of gaining it.

We did not help her cheat, by that time most of us were grown and outta the house, so we didn't leave left-overs either. That was the most successful diet she ever went on, which kept her ambulatory.


No that it stayed off her, but that's another story.

[loCAtek]

[BoSoxGal]

I blame someone else for this.