Firemen and Fat People

Mrs John Murphy · Firemen and Fat People

Fuck off with that 'big boned/fat gene' bollocks. Stop eating so much shit. Do some exercise and stop wasting everyone's money.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/13/fire-crews-nhs-obesity

Fire crews 'are lifting obese patients daily'

Callouts include moving a patient between hospital beds and lifting another down one floor in her house

* Denis Campbell, health correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 March 2009 10.11 GMT

Calling out firefighters to help with obese patients has costed £4m in the past five years, claim the Conservatives.

Firefighters are being called about once a day by the NHS to lift and carry obese people whom staff have found too heavy to move, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Official figures show that fire crews in England have been deployed 1,784 times in the last five years to assist with grossly overweight people, weighing up to 42 stone. Some had become stuck in their bath or car, or had been unable to get up after falling, or had experienced a medical problem such as a heart attack. Several cases involved ambulance personnel requesting extra help to move someone who had died.

In one case, though, Tyne and Wear ambulance service were called simply to move a patient from one hospital bed to another. In another, a fire crew in Lincolnshire had to use a rope and stretcher to help ambulance colleagues get an obese woman from the first floor of her house to the ground.

In some situations fire crews had to use equipment such as stretchers, salvage sheets and turntable ladders as well as their sheer muscle to move the person.

The figures were uncovered by Conservative health spokesman Mike Penning from 37 of England's 44 regional fire authorities. Essex had the most such callouts, 390, followed by Hampshire, with 180, and North Yorkshire, with 147.

Penning, a firefighter from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, said: "These figures show that the NHS is struggling to cope with the growing pressure being put on it by the obesity epidemic. In my 11 years at a busy fire station in Essex I only ever had to help lift an obese person once. Now it's a routine, daily activity. Fire crews should be at real emergencies."

Some fire services have introduced charges for assisting bariatric people in such cases, while others are considering following suit. The Tories say the 1,784 callouts cost taxpayers over £4m, based on the average £2,289 cost of fire and rescue services attending an incident.

The National Obesity Forum, which represents medical specialists in the field, called the statistics "horrific". Spokesman Tam Fry said: "A few of these people can't control their weight for medical reasons, but most have allowed themselves to get so fat that they need firefighters to hoist them out of their bedroom window to get them down to ground level. It's unforgivably selfish."

Doctors and other NHS staff needed to be far more observant about weight rises among patients and intervene earlier, for example by prescribing a course of exercise, added Fry.

The Local Government Association, which represents 400 councils in England and Wales, defended the right of obese people to help from public services. "We shouldn't be fingerpointing at these people and saying that they are timewasting," said a spokeswoman. "Obesity seems to be costing the taxpayer more and more in a variety of ways. Surely what we should be doing is spending money earlier to prevent obesity becoming the huge problem it obviously is."

Ballooning waistlines are forcing councils to spend more money on, for example, social services care for people left housebound by their obesity, wider crematoria furnaces, adaptations to people's houses and wider, stronger furniture in schools' classrooms, gyms and canteens.

The NHS spends £4.2bn a year tackling weight problems, although the landmark Foresight report on obesity in 2007 put the cost the economy as a whole at £16bn. But the Department of Health says that treating very overweight patients could cost £50bn by 2050, if current trends continue. Each of the UK's 2.25m Type 2 diabetics costs the NHS £950 a year, for instance.

Sam-I-Am

aye that and also i think you should have to pay more into the NHS since youre going to cost the rest of us more and also doent sit next to me unless youre buying two train tickets for the two seats youre going to need so the rest of us have a little room to breathe yeah that and eat less too be green and all that shite yeah

kathy

It's about time the NHS started spending some money on preventative medicine. I read recently that 10% of overweight and obese people in the US suffer from underactive thyroid. I spent years with an idiot doctor in the UK telling me to lose weight, even though I wasn't technically overweight at the time. He wouldn't believe me when I said I couldn't lose weight. The problem for me had got a lot worse over about ten years. When I came to Spain I was offered a free health check including a simple blood test. Underactive thyroid diagnosed - medication - and the weight is now melting away. A change in eating habits yes, but no decrease in calories. Unfortunately, the weight gain caused other problems as well, which I'm hoping will disappear with the weight.

I know people who don't have a weight problem like to condemn everyone who does as having no will-power etc, but if the US figures are to be believed, a significant minority of people just can't do anything about it. 10% is not an insignificant figure. The solution lies in one little pill a day, and in my case I should soon be down to the weight I was twenty years ago.

If you have a weight problem, ask for a blood test.

Mrs John Murphy

That is true. But is that majority of those people who are obese? For example smokers get a bad press for basically self-inflicted illnesses, why is there less condemnation of people who have got so over-weight that they are damaging their health and costing the taxpayer money?

I know that there are backstorys to every case - but there are for every alcoholic, heroin user, chain smoker etc

cadence

Sam-I-Am

hypothyroidism is another matter yeah my friends wife has hashimotos and its tough to lose weight but aside from all the medical exceptions weve got a problem get off your arse and ride a bloody bike heh heh

Bro Deal

Today at grocery store I was thinking about this. I can understand people getting fat. Staying trim is hard work and you have to deprive yourself. What I cannot understand is how these people allow themselves to get to the condition where they can barely walk. You see them waddle around like they are trudgng through knee deep snow. These people's enjoyment of life has to be seriously affected, so much so that I cannot fathom that the mild suffering of dieting and exercising does not outweigh the downsides of being morbidly obese.

Maybe it takes a light bulb moment. Kevin Smith decided he needed to lose weight after the sat on a toilet and broke it.

Slapshot 3

I wasn't going to respond to this but as it's so close to my heart, my arse, my gut well maybe I should.

Don't get me wrong obesity is a huge problem I should know, it's been part of our lives for 15 years plus now. In society today many people point fingers and just say "fat bastards" but there's a lot more to it than just lazy fat people, in many cases there are significant other problems behind it and it's too easy just to point and blame, sometimes it not easy or possible to do something about it, bear with me.

18 years ago our son died, 18 months later our daughter: Colin 17 hours after he was born, Hannah during the birth and couldn't be revived. The first nearly killed Mrs S as well.

How do you get through that, well we fought, argued and ate our way through. I was lucky, I was still playing a lot of hockey, 30 miles a day on the bike to and from work and a couple of good long rides a week, Mrs S wasn't.

However in the last six years she's lost more than 50% of her body weight, with a fair bit of medical help but also a fair bit of hindrance as well. She was one of the first to get these gastric band things, which was fine till they had to sort it. She eventually lost buckets of weight. She got a tummy tuck because she'd lost so much but with the state of our wonderful health services and complete fuckwit of a surgeon she ended up with MRSA, a herniated stomach and an 18 month wait till they could fix it, in those 18 months she gained 5 stone however they finally found her medical problem that was causing it. So to prevent her stomach problems killing her she's now had a full gastric by-pass, lost all her weight again and looks a million bucks but still has two maybe three ops to go until she's sorted, one cosmetic, one maybe two potentially life threatning issues, she'll be fine.....wish I could say the same.

As Bro Deal says it can be difficult: in the last 4 years or so, I've worked an average of 65 hours a week often more but never less than 50 through cutbacks and crass stupidity on my own part for agreeing to it and because my employer wouldn't listen. We've no ice rink at the minute and I haven't been on a bike for any sustained time in the last two years, my plan of controlling weight with exercise and diet has gone to bollox and I've put on 5 stone. I don't drink much, couple of units a week if that, don't smoke and don't eat stupidly, 1800-2000 cals a day. I do 12-14 hour shifts, whatever's needed, 1hr to 1hr 30 each way in the car to work. Where's the time for an exercise programme? I can go two or three days at a time and the only thing I see of Mrs S is the lump in the duvet. I don't make excuses, I know I have a problem, I'm doing what I can to sort it but it's not an easy thing to sort.

The thread said firemen, there a Fireman in Aberdeen who was sacked because he was too fat, he was given chances to lose the weight but his beer, fags and unhealthy diet were more important.

When you look at fat folk please don't just assume fat lazy bastard, it's often not the case. Some people want to lose weight and change their lifestyle but can't, there are many others out there who can and get given every opportunity to do so but can't be bothered. Who is in the wrong??

Mrs John Murphy

SS - I agree with you. For example when my mother had cancer the treatment ended up screwing her metabolism so she ended up putting on weight that she had never had - and she can't lose it because of the cancer and the treatment.

I've got a friend in Canada who was hugely over-weight and he has been losing weight recently and it is a struggle for him. So I do understand.

Then again - one of my cousins is over-weight. She lives about a mile from the gym. Does she walk to the gym? No she drives. She drives because she claims 'I am worried about being happy-slapped'. The truth is that she is lazy, she eats crap food and doesn't exercise.

However, when I get on the bus or train and I see someone with an already obese kid in a pushchair stuffing his face with sweets, while his/her overweight mother waddles along I really do wonder if such behaviour borders on child neglect. Now, poverty, lack of education may play a part there. Similarly, when I sit next to an overweight city guy, he has no excuses, he has education, he has money.

The issue of obesity is a huge issue - it is only going to get worse, and the cost to the taxpayer is only going to increase. However, we live in a society that is governed by a sense of self-entitlement - telling people that they should eat less meat, eat more veg, exercise more, if viewed as an affront to their right to eat badly and drive everywhere.

Why should those of us who do try to look after our health have to pay for those who are too self-indulgent? Why should those who have genuine health problems suffer from the stigma which results from those who are too lazy to change?

Bartali

SS - I'm very prone to feeling sorry for myself, but when I read a post like yours ... well, it gives me a kick in the arse! All the best to you and Mrs SS.

And to you too Kathy - hope your health problems get sorted very soon!

cardinal guzman

I object to the way cigarettes come with a photograph of tar-soaked lungs on the back. Car's don't come with a photo of a pedestrians severed head on the bonnet - for example.

kathy

cardinal guzman

You should be able to get your cats done fairly readily, it's a simple and quick operation with fantastic results.

Best wishes to everyone, it seems we are a right set of demics on here one way or another!

Slapshot 3

Folks thanks for the comments, they are much appreciated. I hate talking about this kind of stuff, I'm not a bleeding hearts type of person. The kids, It was a while ago and though you never forget, you learn to deal with it, two really bad days a year. One thing we always consider though is that some of the lessons learned with them helped grotbags (15yo daughter) get through what she had to get through.

This is a topic that's had a real affect on us and a good one for general debate, there always another perspective.

last km

Thanks for sharing slapshot......must have been difficult to write a post like that.

Makes me realise how lucky I am with my lot.

jdog

thunderthighs

eat less you fat pigs.. ciao

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jdog

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jdog

C

jdog

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thunderthighs

u leaf fans are all fatsy, lardsy and klutsy.. ciao

and leafs stink..ciao

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Mrs John Murphy

I'm sure that TT will be in need of a defibrillator long before any of us.

He's just pissed off because Forearms has outed him as the wummer he is.

Come on TT tell us about how you came 4th in a tin pot crit aged 14 1/2.