Half Ton Man Dies After Pleading For Help

[MA-Caver]

This is really sad in a lot of ways. But it was an unnecessary death.

Half-ton Mexican man dies after pleading for help

By MARK WALSH, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 7, 7:35 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_half_ton_man
JUAREZ, Mexico - A 990-pound bedridden man who had appealed on Mexican television for help tackling his weight problem died Tuesday of heart failure, his family said.




Emergency officials had to knock down Jose Luis Garza's bedroom wall and load him onto the back of a friend's pickup truck as he fought for his life. The 47-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in northern Mexico.
Garza followed in the footsteps of the world's fattest man, fellow Mexican Manuel Uribe of Monterrey, by taking his weight problem public. Garza lived about an hour away from Uribe in the town of Juarez.
Garza said he always struggled with his weight, but that he fell into a desperate cycle of depression and overeating nine months ago after his parents died of natural causes within two weeks of each other. He had been bedridden for four months.

 

[exile]

Very sad... it really got me down, this evening, when I saw the story earlier. Especially when you consider that some of this seems to have been triggered by his own parents' recent deaths. Obviously, there's a lot more going on here, and maybe nothing really could have been done. But I found it heartbreaking.

 

[punisher73]

It's a bad situation, but I don't see what could have been done by the point he asked for help.

It's unfortunately a situation where he literally had to lay in the bed that he made.

People chose to kill themselves slowly everyday around the world. He chose to do so through eating instead of alcohol like some do. Why is it that this seems more sad than other deaths? There are many people who decide to late to get help and the damage has been done.

But, what I would like to know, where were his friends and family that were left? At what point did they keep feeding him? It said he was bed ridden for months. Why wasn't help sought sooner?

 

[Sukerkin]

It is human of us to both feel sympathy for the passing of a man and also to question how things got to such a pass.

As punisher said above, if he was bed-ridden then food had to be brought to him. Surely that's a circumstance to raise all kinds of alarm bells?

 

[terryl965]

It is sad but at the same time we as adults know what is right and wrong. This man choose his path and did nothing until it was to late to help. Very sad

 

[KenpoGirl75]

I have some friends that are on the "large" size, and seemingly getting larger. Their answer to diet and exercise is that it is impossible because they cannot exercise due to injuries and such....although they could manage to go yardsaling every saturday during the summer months. I think it boils down to simply that people get so large because they are lazy. I have another friend who weighed nearly 500 lbs...he had the gastric bypass and almost died. Now, a year later, he is finally in his own apartment, still unable to walk any further than around his own apartment with a walker. He has lost over 100 pounds, but complications from the surgery caused so much damage. I'm not sure what my point is, just that lack of desire and motivationto change, for many reasons, plays a big part in severe obesity.

 

[mook jong man]

I'm sorry what is yardsaling ?
I also agree that they are lazy , i have a mate and his brother that were pretty overweight and i said after i teach my morning class at the school on a Sunday i will drive over to their place and train them .

I just taught them basics and made them do a lot of power training on the pads , nothing too hard , just made them get a sweat up . I didn't charge them anything because they were mates and i was concerned about them , anyway i taught them about two sessions and next time i arrived they just came up with crappy excuses , this hurts , that hurts , they're too busy etc .

I told them that's okay and i just never bothered pushing the subject again , that was about 10 years ago and they both still are overweight , still smoke , still drink alcohol and still eat crap . I am no saint either i eat a lot of crap food too like potatoe chips , but the difference is when i train i train my **** off .

I think these people have to take responsibility for themselves , they have to have the willpower to try and change , people will be only too willing to help them if they show a bit of gumption and at least try to start some type of training even if its just lifting light dumbells.

 

[punisher73]

I'm sorry what is yardsaling ?
.

Here in the US, we have "yard sales" also called garage sales. People set up their stuff outside of their home and sell it. Many times neighborhoods will do these all at the same time. People who go from one sale to another and shop at them call it yardsaling.

 

[mook jong man]

Thanks Punisher , i thought it might be some new nautical based sport.

 

[Cirdan]

The body is not designed to rot in the couch, it is made for activity. If you stay active your body will TELL you what you need to eat.

Sigh. So many people, particularily in the US, are not taking care of themselves. We are too well off, loosing focus.

 

[punisher73]

The body is not designed to rot in the couch, it is made for activity. If you stay active your body will TELL you what you need to eat.

Sigh. So many people, particularily in the US, are not taking care of themselves. We are too well off, loosing focus.

Just to point out, this was in Mexico where the average person isn't too well off. It's not just a US thing (although we do have a high level of this).

 

[MA-Caver]

People who are "overweight" do not offend my sense of rightness. They like to eat but they are still active enough to where if they wanted to they could be at their ideal weight/height ratio.
Grossly obese people that I've seen offend me greatly, though I keep it to myself and just shake my head sadly.
While true some folks have a glandular imbalance that causes obesity not all obese people have it. It's a convenient crutch to prevent exercise and proper diet. They'll blame knee injuries, leg, hip and other maladies that prevent them from simply walking around the block on a daily basis until they can extend it to two, three, and perhaps someday make it a mile.
True, they probably do have knee/joint problems brought on by their weight. If they had exercised prior and during their massive weight gain then perhaps their body would be sufficient enough to carry that much.
But they lack largely in muscular development. Carrying around body fat. And lots of it.
Laziness is 50/50. 50% the obese and 50% society's reliance and fondness for technology. So much of our technology makes our lives so much easier than say 50-60 years ago. My favorite example is that damned tv remote. How many of you remember actually having to get out of your chair/couch to walk over to the TV set and change the channel? The only muscle needed now is the thumb, you can rest your hand on your propped up knee and aim the remote sensor at the tv and just press a button (or three).
Remember how everyone in school just HATED P.E. ? That carried over to where it's now not compulsory. So if a kid doesn't wanna then he don't hafta. He/She will just munch on their snacks and deal with their teenage angst by stuffing as much food inside them as they can.
We can blame computer/video games if we wanted to. No going out and playing rough and tumble games because they might get hurt or fall into the wrong crowd. Blame all of that on the parents who buy the damned things for their kids.
Quick fixes are a doctor's way of paying for that deluxe leather edition Rolls Royce Silver Shadow V they ordered. Gil Gerard (aka Buck Rogers) had that surgery. I know of several who have had it. A lady that I know has had it and she used to be in the 4-500 lbs range and managed to lose a couple hundred. But mentally she sunk back into her depression (that got her obese in the first place) and inspite of her 1lb intake capacity is ballooning again. Chances are she'll kill herself as she's also diabetic. She just nods and smiles and says "I know, I'm working on it" when her friends plead with her to take better care of herself... but.

The man who died had that surgery and had lost a significant amount... he used to be a record holder of over 1200 lbs. and was down to 900+ but still being so large he couldn't move. Yeah folks kept bringing him food and that was probably all they could do for him... that and cleaning him up.

Garza said he always struggled with his weight, but that he fell into a desperate cycle of depression and overeating nine months ago after his parents died of natural causes within two weeks of each other. He had been bedridden for four months.

Same as my friend.
Still the human capacity for compassion demands that we help these people regardless of how they make us feel. We owe it to ourselves and to them to help them when they ask for it.