I’m a paramedic and many of the changes in todays society have lead to an increase in morbid obesity. Morbid obesity is associated with an increased risk of most diseases such as coronary artery disease, chest infections, strokes and general debility.

This is one funny morbid obesity story that I can relate, but also acknowledge the severity of the sitution.

I attended a morbidly obese patient (who weighed in excess of 350kgs) and needed to go to hospital to be assessed for various skin conditions commonly associated with poor health and morbid obesity. After a long battle with several paramedics and some firemen, we eventually managed to get this patient to hospital.

At the hospital the patient advised the assessing doctor that she feels as though there is something under her apron (the giant fold of fat that draped over her legs), As the doctor worked around the patient to assess her, the doctor organised a couple nurses to help lift her appron. Eeach time the doctor poked and prodded, she told him that there was something else there… something very uncomfortable…

There was some mould and the nurses scrubbed this off…

But still the patient complained of something larger and insisted there was something uncomfortable inside her fat…

A Jordan Lifter (lifting device) was brought in and utilized to lift her apron.

As the lifter was raised, new parts of her stomach became visible – what was found?

An old sandwich and the remote control for the TV were both identified and wedged inside the fatty folds to the point that the skin had started to absorb the foreign bodies and engulf them.

While everyone gasped in shock, the patient said turned around and said: “Wow, I thought I’d lost that remote control weeks ago!”