Oh, give me a break.

[aebhel]

The insanity just never stops, does it?

Just in--Australians are now a whopping 1% fatter than Americans. In order to combat this public health crisis, 'experts' are suggesting measures like refusing surgery on the basis of weight.

Let's unpack this statement a little, shall we? Obesity, according to experts, is a crisis. Why is it a crisis? Because

Comments

[lazaefair]

You may want to take into consideration that fat people actually require specialized equipment to haul and treat them. Apparently, the costs are nearly prohibitive for replacing stretchers, beds, wheelchairs, and ambulances with the wider, sturdier stuff that the obese patients require - 15,000USD for a single large recliner. Also, injuries among nurses and paramedics keep rising due to having to lift fatter and fatter patients - in 2001, 78 employees were injured at Tampa Bay Hospital alone, which cost the hospital 500,000USD each - so hospitals are going to the additional expense of hiring lift teams specially trained for hauling the obese around. And then there's scanning machines and such that can't accommodate larger bodies.

Outright refusing surgery is still wrongheaded and I fail to see how it would contribute usefully to the problem. But I can see how hospitals would get frustrated with the rising number of obese patients coming in.

[aebhel]

The thing is, these articles all talk as though 'obese' means '500 pounds and bed-ridden' which the vast majority of obese people are in fact not.

I guess I understand about the cost of equipment and so on, but I think refusing surgery in order to save hospitals the cost of accommodating their obese patients is...well, amoral.