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Telly addicts

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Original poster

Bariatric ambulances-Did anyone watch?

27 replies

Hammy02 · 24/05/2011 09:57

I spent most of the time hiding behind my hands as it was so upsetting. Some people were 40 stone plus, couldn't move without a wheelchair, no quality of life, horrific sores and illnesses. I really felt for the people in the same way as I would if I was watching someone very underweight. It really opened my eyes.

OP posts:

Ooopsadaisy · 24/05/2011 10:03

Yes, I saw it. I was left wondering why the health system allows them to get to that state without intervening.

If they've been that ill/housebound/unable to work for years then they will be either under a GP or claiming some sort of benefit and therefore must be "known to the system".

Why/how do they get like that?

I found it quite distressing.

Original poster

Hammy02 · 24/05/2011 10:14

Yes. There seemed to be a reactive rather than pro-active approach. I noticed there was a load of ready meals/packaged food knocking around so tackling this would be one small step in the right direction IMO.

OP posts:

Ooopsadaisy · 24/05/2011 10:25

The sister who cared for her extremely over-weight sister clearly loved her very much, but why did it get to that stage?

Shouldn't the weight gain that that woman experienced at the age of 16-17 have been dealt with then rather than it getting worse and worse until she was in her 40s and couldn't move?

I can't imagine allowing a loved one to get to that stage.

I'm not criticising - I have no right to, because I've never been in that position, but I don't understand how it can get to that.

Original poster

Hammy02 · 24/05/2011 10:36

At a guess I would say it is a vicious cycle. Feel low due to weight so turn to food, get bigger, eat more food, etc etc. Also poor knowledge about healthy eating, portion control. I have had issues with alcohol and as much as loved ones have tried to help, it had to be me that got my own head straight. It didn't matter what anyone else said.

OP posts:

Dropdeadfred · 24/05/2011 10:38

but if someone cannot move and has no wages only benefits, how can they afford to buy so much food? and surely the type of food they get brought in should be monitored?

Lulumama · 24/05/2011 10:38

i did watch it.

it is a gradual process to get to that weight, and then you reach a point where you are very very overweight, you are almost immobile and housebound and therefore barely burn any calories, and your only pleasure is eating and voila, you are 'suddenly' 25 stone +

most people who reach that weight have , I should imagine, a very complicated psychological relationship with food.

Lulumama · 24/05/2011 10:39

i am amazed the ambulance men were able, between two of them , to lift and move some of the patients.

Original poster

Hammy02 · 24/05/2011 10:44

I don't think money would be an issue. They probably don't do anything apart from eat and you can buy rubbish food very cheaply.

OP posts:

Lulumama · 24/05/2011 10:48

yes, crap food is mostly cheap, and if you don't /can't cook, ready meals, or lots of rubbish to fill you up is cheap.

if you can't stand , you can't prepare food easily, if you can't move around your kitchen,then eating ready prepared or take out or what have you is your only option

weight is easy to put on and hard to lose , and once you're immobile, you've pretty much had it

ThisIsANiceCage · 24/05/2011 11:10

Thank you Lulumama, you've just said much more succintly what I was writing an essay to say.

Except mine ended with an offer to crawl up and crown anybody suggesting even more fucking hoops for disabled people to leap through, like having our food buying monitored.

(Hysterical laughter, given we soon won't be able to get our food bought or cooked by other people, due to the withdrawal of Disability Living Allowance and care by local councils, so "monitored" is .)

Sorry, a bit off-topic given this thread is about people who actually have become dangerously overweight, but given what's happening now with the cuts, there'll shortly be more disabled people dying of malnutrition-related probs than of obesity.

Lulumama · 24/05/2011 11:11

there is so much more to it than being fat and lazy, it's complicated , but it's easier to point and mock at the freak show than trying to understand the reasons.

Lulumama · 24/05/2011 11:12

and it must be so so lonely, if you are housebound and immobile too and people shun you

ThisIsANiceCage · 24/05/2011 11:27

'Tis what t'internet is for, Lulumama.

Lulumama · 24/05/2011 14:09

true, very true

Highlander · 24/05/2011 17:05

who on earth was feeding those housebound patients?

FlyingStart · 24/05/2011 17:09

"who on earth was feeding those housebound patients?"

Highlander, I have said the same question on another similar thread a couple of months ago, and the thread deteriorated. It was the first time someone through a personal insult at me on mumsnet! It appears that question touches a raw nerve. I don't know why though.

FlyingStart · 24/05/2011 17:11

I mean, I have asked the same question before, but got lampooned as a reply.

Northernlurker · 24/05/2011 17:14

Didn't see the other thread but 'who on earth is feeding them' - you are talking about fellow human beings here. They are not animals at the zoo. They can decide what they want to eat and when they want to eat. They make make lousy choices BUT they retain the capacity to make those choices. People they employ, people tasked to see to their needs and people who love them will all obtain the food they ask for because as adults that is their choice and it must be respected however loathsome it seems to you.

FlyingStart · 24/05/2011 17:16

Here we go again.

boohoohoo · 24/05/2011 17:28

I was watching last night but missed the ending, can anyone tell me what happened go the man whose surgeon had agreed to operate? I was very moved, when he said that if he didn't survive the op he would be free of pain.

Northernlurker · 24/05/2011 17:47

Oh sorry flying start - tell you what, why don't you say whatever crap you like and I'll not object at all. After all this isn't a discussion forum is it?

Dropdeadfred · 24/05/2011 18:18

I think flyingstart has a point, perhaps badly made..?
If the people on the programme were alcoholics and their friends and family repeatedly plied them with alcohol would that be seen as okay, because it was the persons choice? even if it was going to slowly kill them and rob them of quilaity of life? before even beginning to think of the costs involved in home help etc

TheCrackFox · 24/05/2011 18:26

I think some of them were surrounded by enablers?

Is there going to be a follow up programme as I would like to see if their operations worked and they went on to lose some weight.

Original poster

Hammy02 · 24/05/2011 18:50

I agree that some of them were surrounded by enablers. Surely it is better to restrict what they eat than resort to dangerous surgery. If an alcoholic was in rehab, would you say they would thank you for giving them copious amounts of the very thing that is killing them? Or compare them to being in a zoo? I don't think so.

OP posts:

ThisIsANiceCage · 24/05/2011 19:07

Off-licences and pubs are enablers. As are cigarette sellers.

Who gets to say No to whom?

It's a question I often wonder about.

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