When The Nanny Mentality Goes Berserk

In Ipswich, England, the once World’s Fattest Man, a former postal employee, is suing the National Health Service for allowing him to become so obese. The 50 year old man asked for help at 30 stone(a stone equals 14 pounds), but feels he received poor advice from a medic in 1996 who advised him to ride his bike more often. He is also complaining that at 64 stone, he asked to see an eating disorders specialist, he feels he was wronged by being sent to a dietician; Consequently, he blames the NHS and these two issues for his weight getting out of control. In his and his lawyer’s view, England’s Socialized Health System is responsible and they expect to be rewarded financially; although, he has stated that he wants to do something for society by pressing forward with the suit. Thus he hopes to salvage an altruistic sense of self-sacrificing dignity from a life time of self-indulgence.

“I want to set a precedent so no one else has to get to the same size – and to put something back into society.”

He has recently undergone a gastric surgery that has allowed him to reduce to a smaller 37 stone.

His obese state has caused him so much grief that he has tried, unsuccessfully, to commit suicide three times. He took an overdose of painkillers, but somehow failed in the attempt. Although, those who really want to commit suicide will get the deed done, those who are begging for attention fail. He has also tried slashing his wrists, but obviously neglected to cut deep enough; as a result of a gastric band operation being cancelled. Of course most gastric bands are only effective until the upper part of the stomach, above the band stretches enough to accommodate the pre-surgery intake of food and then, the weight comes back with a vengeance. The basic problems don’t go away permanently, unless you eat less and exercise more.

Five years passed until he was given the chance for the operation again. During that period he was housebound and was consuming 20,000 calories a day, ten times the requirement for a healthy man. His sedentary lifestyle was so advanced that he couldn’t get up and out to attend the funeral of his mother. During the past fifteen years, the cost to the state for caring for this man is estimated to have hit one million pounds (One pound Sterling = $1.55 US).

He finally had the operation at a cost to England’s Socialized Health Care of 30,000 pounds and another 5,000 to reinforce the floor of the surgical room so that it could withstand his weight. At his heaviest, he was weighing in at 70 stone.

Earlier today, I worked for a physician; we discussed this case at length, he assured me he was familiar with the situation. He told me that morbidly obese people come to him regularly with complaints of knee pain. He will radiograph the knee of a twenty eight year old and the knee will look like the knee of an eighty year old person. He will suggest that they exercise more and eat less and they will complain that that is just too hard. They want a surgery or a medication that will work the magic without any effort or inconvenience for them.

I told him that we were fast approaching the day when these weaklings would hold him responsible if he couldn’t get the weight off them in a timely fashion and without asking them to sacrifice, the main reason for the weight problem in the first place. He looked at the ground and shook his head. He then told me he was going to send this article around to his contemporaries in the medical field to show them what they had to look forward to in the future with Obama Care and the Perpetual Nanny State. That state where the doctor does these magical things for you if you are too stupid or too lazy to do them yourself.