Man weighing 1,200 pounds seeks life-saving surgery in Italy

http://reuters.myway.com/image/20060503/2006-05-03T115608Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_1_NEWS-SCIENCE-OBESITY-DC.html?date=20060503&docid=2006-05-03T121624Z_01_L0381917_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SCIENCE-OBESITY-DC




Man weighing 1,200 pounds seeks life-saving surgery in Italy


May 3, 8:16 AM (ET)


By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - A Mexican man who at 550 kg (1,200 lb) is possibly the heaviest person in the world hopes to travel to Italy for a life-saving operation to shed weight.

Manuel Uribe, bedridden for the past five years, cannot stand on his own and will need a special flight to take him from Monterrey, Mexico to Modena, where a surgical team has offered to perform an intestinal bypass free of charge.

"I can't walk. I'm can't leave my bed," the 40-year-old Uribe, who weighs the same as five baby elephants, said in a recent telephone interview.

"I'm trying to reduce my weight a bit right now so I can be in the right condition for the operation."

Uribe made an impassioned plea for help earlier this year on Mexican television, saying he weighed a more normal 130 kg (290 lb) until aged 22 and did not know what happened to him.

The broadcast drew the attention of doctor Giancarlo De Bernardinis, who visited Mexico with a medical team to examine Uribe in March.

Bernardinis, whose biggest patient to date weighed 350 kg (770 lb), told Reuters he plans a gall bladder, intestinal bypass procedure that will allow Uribe to pass food more quickly without so many calories being absorbed.

Bernardinis planned to perform the surgery in Modena as early as this month, although a Mexican health official doubted Uribe would be ready for a trip to Europe that quickly.

MEDICAL MYSTERY

Uribe's case puzzles doctors since his cholesterol and blood-sugar levels are normal, despite his extreme obesity.

"His heart works very well. He has some respiratory difficulty because of his obesity, but in strict terms, he's well," said Marco Anibal Rodriguez Vargas, the director of hospitals in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.

Rodriguez Vargas said Mexican hospitals still hoped to treat Uribe themselves, but added Uribe would ultimately decide what to do.

Uribe said it was just a matter of time before he went to Italy: "Are we going? Yes. We're going. But the doctors will decide when."

The operation would last four to five hours and would likely require Uribe to spend one month in Italy.

"He will always be heavier than normal but certainly not like he is now ... We would be satisfied even if he weighed 150 kg (330 lb) after two years," Bernardinis said.

No one has managed to find suitable scales for Uribe in years and estimates of his weight are made partly by tape-measure. Guinness World Records 2006 only said it was aware of living people weighing over 508 kg (1,120 lb).

The record for the heaviest man ever is held by Jon Brower Minnoch, who died in Seattle in 1983 after reaching a record 635 kg (1,400 lb). He was in his early 40s.

Uribe hopes to avoid that fate. His wife, horrified by his increasing size, feared the worst and abandoned him more than a decade ago.

"She left me because she must have thought I was dying," Uribe said.

"Thank God, I'm still alive and hopefully will be able to take care of this problem."

 

It looks like he has a callous on his belly from dragging it around

 

thats just nasty. how do people get that big?? I saw this documentary on national geographic about this guy who weighed 750 lbs...... he couldnt walk, because his knee gave out from all the weight...... and he was bedridden for 7 years...... and he just keeps eating burgers and greasy food....... I mean, if your knees give out, and you cant walk anymore because you are too heavy, then dont you think you should change your diet a bit????

 

.

 

Is it just me, or does that dude's gut look like a giant scrotum?

 

rofl omg! It's not just you

 

at first, thats what I thought it was.......

like he had elephantitis in his sack.......

I saw this video , in some third world country, where this guy was going up into a hut, and some dude was behind him, holding up his scrotum, to keep it from getting snagged..... I swear, it was so large, it was dragging on the ground.

 

I thought it was elephantitus too - yikes looks painful

 

uh why is his stomach hanging out the bottom of his shorts? ughh...

 

thats what i always wonder.. how does someone get that big? sad really.. breaks my heart

 

youd think they stop, once they are bedridden.......

 

plus.. he can't go get food.. who is feeding this man? your body will not get that big in sarvation mode

 

damn =/

 

I don't know why but that made me laugh so hard I spit on my keyboard. :&

 

i watched something on tv once about a large man like this.. and what he ate in one day i could feed myself and family on for a week.. and the whole time i was thinking.. "who the FUCK is the asshole buying all this food for him??" sure he needs to eat.. we all do.. but come on. i think thats abuse by the person buying the food for anyone too big to get out of bed.

 

Just.... damn.....

 

ugh... revolting.

 

Stop lyin. Know you want to lick the fungus and sweat out from all his crevices.

 

God that's just sad...

 

I honestly don't understand how this happens to people. It has nothing to do with greasy or fatty foods at all, by the way. It's purely calorie intake. Obviously at this point it's out of hand, but 800 pounds ago it would've been easily fixable. All somebody had to do was tell this man to count the calories he eats in a day and just cut back by 500 a day. For a 400 lb man, that usually just means slightly smaller portions to start off.

It makes me wonder if anybody has ever tried to help this man, or if they just shook their head in disbelief and watched him eat away. No weight problem should ever get that far out of control. I don't care what the reasoning is.