Fire Kills 600lb Man

[Jon]

Fire Kills 600-Pound Man

POSTED: 12:15 pm PDT October 16, 2005

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Despite frantic rescue efforts by neighbors and firefighters, a 600-pound Missouri man has died after his mobile home caught fire.

Authorities said Timothy Morris called 911 Saturday after the fire began. His two young daughters -- ages 8 and 13 -- begged neighbors to help their father, who suffered from health problems and could not walk. The girls' mother was away at the time.

The Rest HERE - Clicky

 

[CaptainPanic]

Not to be demeaning but gross obesity kills.

Now I am sorry for the familys loss, but how do you allow a loved one to become that big? if you loved them you would encourage them to lose weight for their health, and in this case, safety.

Also from the news report he was riding the MO Disability system due the health problems related to his gross obesity. Im overweight, Im going to start claimig disability. :angry:

I think the state should have said, after you reach this weight, we will no longer be feeding you McDonalds happy meals, you'll be drinking meal replacements until your weight becomes satisfactory.

 

[Jon]

I agree, CP..... this is a "big" problem.....

On a related note... this is something I always made a big deal of when I did take homes, espicially in South Philadelphia with JeffSTAT..... I would take these LOL's home from the hospital after they FDGB'd out of bed, or while walking.... I really wanted to say "you need to put your Mom in a assisted living / SNF home... where she can be watched 24x7".... I usually settled for education on fall prevention, as well as the "safety" aspect of being on anything other than the ground floor.

It isn't really cool to have grandma living in the dining room when you have friends over, but if she can't get around without assistance, she should be on ground level so someone can drag her out if there was a fire.

As for fall prevention: How many times are we in someone's home after they fell? When you take home someone after they fell ... talk to the family about grab rails..... about trying to get the Pt. on the ground flooor...... point out the danger of throw rugs on wood floors..... either get wall-to-wall carpet, or go without.

Don't say that it is "someone else's job." We, as EMS PROFESSIONALS, are patient advocates. We must do what is best for the patient. If you have a way to be SURE that the Hospital's visiting nurse program will come and do patient fall prevention education...great. You can't..... they are too busy, and too often these resources are not used by those who REALLY need them.


Jon

 

[CaptainPanic]

BOTH of my grandparents are prone to falls. My grandmother has a bad back that no longer supports her as needed. And my grandpa is just really stumbly. Ive seen both of them go down.

We are all going in as a family to redoing their house with tub chair, hand rails, gaurd rails, re-doing the carpeting to prevent trips, and we have seriously thought about giving each of them a phone clip to carry the cordless phones with incase they fall away from the phone they can still call for help.

What is really sad is within the next year to 18 mos one or both of them will end up in a NH due to a bad fall.

We are getting grandpa a scooter for Christmas so *hopefully* we can prevent a nasty debilitating fall. :unsure: h34r: