Posted on 08/11/2004 2:49:06 PM PDT by Calpernia
STUART, Fla. -- A dramatic rescue ended tragically in Stuart, Florida, a rescue so difficult firefighters say they have never seen anything like it.
It happened late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning at the home of a 600-pound woman who was having trouble breathing. Rescuers went in not knowing how difficult it would be to get her out. 40-year-old Gail Grinds was literally stuck to her couch and had to be removed surgically at the hospital.
Authorities estimate she had been on the couch anywhere from two to five years.
Martin County Fire amd Rescue crews faced what seemed to be an impossible mission. Everyone going inside had to wear protective gear. The stench was so powerful they had to blast in fresh air.
They tried to cut out the front door, but at four-and-a-half feet wide, it wouldn't work. They had to cut plywood since a normal stretcher wouldn't do.
An ambulance was too small, so they brought in a trailer to get her out. While rescue crews came up with a back-door rescue plan, detectives secured what had become a crime scene, questioning family members about how it got so bad.
Using planks, they loaded the woman on to the trailer, still attached to the couch. Removing her would be too painful, since her body is grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin has literally become one with the sofa and it must be surgically removed.
Detectives are investigating whether they have a case of neglect, or if it is simply a very sad story.
Grinds was taken to the Martin Memorial hospital where doctors removed her from the couch, but she died in spite of all the attempts to save her life.
OMG! They had kids living in that filth????? The report seemed to suggest that...that, and the baby bottle and bicycle. D**N!
I saw that too. I think I was happier 'wondering' rather than knowing this much :(
Cause she has been on that couch for a minimum of 2 years according to the article....and the size of the bicycle suggests a 5 year old and the baby bottle suggests younger than a toddler.
I would rather not try to figure this one out. I'm passing mortified now.
Thats just sad.
If she was melded to the couch, she obviously couldn't shop.
Thats why it may be a case of neglect
How big does a couch have to be to become a bed for a 600-lb. mass of humanity?
If I were not sitting in a chair with arms, scrunched up against my keyboard, I would be falling on the floor laughing at your post at 37.
Thank you.
Not for her being fat. But someone who paid the bills, brought the food and hatever SHOULD have helped her get medical attention. Thats the crime.
Thank you for cutting right to the important question! ;)
This is just almost too much to believe! How horrible is this?
I had to put my 22-lb. cat on a diet -- he got that way because he had to eat prescription food for another medical condition and it plumped him up. He would scratch at and throw himself at my bedroom door around 2 or 3 AM and I couldn't sleep unless I got up to feed him.
So I got a baby gate he can't jump over, installed it in the hallway several feet from my door, and voila! he's lost 7 pounds.
Where on earth did you get that? It can't be real..
The EMT's look like they have HAZMAT gear on.
Gotta say that What's Eating Gilbert Grape was a good movie. Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent - I had to ask if he was an actor or retarded (or whatever the current pc speak is).
Oh my. Well the man was obviously a case of "diminished capacity." Awful.
I've heard of / read about people who were badly abused in childhood who could not control anything about their lives and bodies, then grew up, got away from the abuser, and turned to food intake as something satisfying that they could have some control over, making eating a way of compensating for the lack of, and giving themselves, the loving care they didn't receive when they needed it. For some, it can become an obsessive/compulsive disorder, and lethal.
Calpernia, those are probably old items. I doubt this woman has had a baby recently and the video didn't mention kids, did it? Horrible.
>>>obsessive/compulsive disorder
Now that I can understand versus addiction. Why not work on changing the focus of the obsession? I wonder if that would work.
I REALLY hope you are right. Could you imagine children living in that? ::shivers::
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