British Expatriate Network

Clicky goodness

United Press International

A 407-pound New York woman claims she is suffering severe pain because her obesity leaves her unable to get proper medical attention.

Jennifer Walters, who is bed-ridden and cannot walk because of excessive weight, told the New York Post because she cannot fit into a magnetic resonance imaging machine, a doctor said she should go to the Bronx Zoo for an X-ray.

"It's humiliating. I was told if elephants and hippos need MRIs, they have the equipment at the Bronx Zoo. It was like I was an animal," Walters told the Post.

Walkers said she has excruciating pain in her back and legs. The Post said one of the doctors Walters said made the zoo suggestions said he used to do it, "but I don't think we do it anymore."

New York politicians have recently called for an end of what they termed medical discrimination against obese people.

For the record, the Bronx Zoo told the Post it gets about a dozen such calls a year but it doesn't have such facilities for its animals.

She needs to stop moaning to the press. There is not much space in those machines so someone over 400 pounds probably really does need to use the one at the zoo and maybe the doctor was being serious. If you want to get pain cured, you've got to find the facilities that will fit your body because they certainly aren't going to build a supersize mri machine just for you.

It had to be an American innit D

At what point does discrimination end? Will they next demand that obese people should have the right to be able to run as fast as thinner people? Will the ones that can't move off their beds be demanding Walmart come to them?

If super-obese people want specially built equipment etc, then they need to club together and sort it out for themselves. Just like left-handed people did. They developed companies to manufacture products for lefties. Left-handed people are just as discriminated against as fat people, as the world is set up for right-handers.

They should put all their whinging energy into building a hospital for fatties. Or a t least fundraising to buy the hospital an outsized MRI machine. Many of the equipment used for adults is not suitable for children ......so children's hospitals were built, and people fundraise for child-size equipment for them. Now children certainly can't help being small, so if this is how it is for them, why not for the professional heffalumps too?

Yes, I know that some supremely overweight people cannot help their condition. But I think most can, and we cannot possibly tailor every aspect of life to cope with every possible disability.

/oops was I ranting again?

I actually thought the doctor's suggestion was perfectly reasonable. Rather than being discriminatory or insulting he was (perhaps) using the best/only feasible alternative resource available for a person of her size. It's sad that she is so grossly obese she can't leave her bed but, although she may indeed be embarassed, she alone is responsible for drawing our attention to her dilemna by complaining to the Press. roll

I agree that the doctor's suggestion was reasonable. And about the embarassment issue. Nail on the head there. And so much more nicely put ;)

Thank you. My day has just begun....I was feeling generous. wink

So has mine... and I'm ready to kill......

:lol:

Calm down monster......breathe in, and breathe out :D

Rut Roh. :o :)

The thing is, hospitals can't in some cases cater for the morbidly obese. There isn't anything they can do. How were they going to move her from the bed to the ambulance to hospital?

The remark about hippos and stuff was uncalled for though.

I am sure she can't fit into her shower either, I wonder if she could bath in the hippo tank?

Now that is just harsh :wink: Perhaps we can have a fundraiser for her, to get her a swimming pool, or one of those fancy outdoor tubs with cd players and plasma screens built in :D

Sod that, I deserve a fancy outdoor tub with goodies more than her.

/just because.

Yeah, and I'm sure you could get an STD that a condom won't protect you from as well. Easy to laugh at someone with a condition/weakness/addiction isn't it? However, the MD or nurse assigned to your care shouldn't do it, due to professional issues*.

*Everyone else can though.