(April 21) - A day after a Texas TV station aired the story of a 700-pound woman who pleaded for help finding health care, a local rehabilitation clinic accepted her case Tuesday, CBS 11 TV reported.
Karen Ferguson, who suffers from diabetes and other health problems, left her home with the help of a local ambulance crew. It was the first time she had been outside her trailer in Fort Worth in a year.
"She has the abilities to get out and get better. It's all in the matter of her will power, and I believe she's got it," one of the paramedics said.
In her interview with CBS 11 a day earlier, Ferguson said she needs help with tasks such as moving to her portable toilet, which is just steps from a large chair that was built to hold her weight.
Ferguson said she is suffering from bed sores and other problems related to being immobile. She had been turned down by nursing homes because of problems with Medicare, she said.
She expressed her fears of remaining bed-ridden for the rest of her life as her bed sores fester and her body deteriorates.
"That's the worst thing I could ever imagine," Ferguson said.
