How much healthier would the lives of lesser fat people be, if biographies like these were the subject of discussion in professional journals rather than supermarket tabloids?
| * | 1. | Carol Yager (1960 - 1994) of Flint, MI; 5 ft 7 in, estimated to have weighed more than 1600 lbs at her peak. She had been fat since childhood. In 1993, she was measured at 1189 lbs when admitted to Hurley Medical Center, suffering from cellulitis. She lost nearly 500 lbs on a 1200-calorie diet, but most of that weight was thought to be fluid, and she regained all of it and more soon after being discharged. Her teenage daughter, a boyfriend, and a group of volunteers helped take care of her. Despite extravagant promises by diet maven Richard Simmons and talk-show host Jerry Springer, Yager received little practical assistance in return for her media exposure (though Springer continues to profit from her appearance on his show, having rebroadcast that episode at least four times). She was refused further hospitalization on the grounds that her condition was not critical, despite massive water retention and signs of incipient kidney failure, and these problems led to her death a few weeks later. |
| * | 2. | Jon Brower Minnoch (1941 - 1983) of Bainbridge Island, WA; 6 ft 1 in, estimated as weighing "probably more than" 1400 lbs in 1979, at which point it took 13 people just to roll him over in bed. Minnoch, like many of the heaviest people, suffered from massive edema: his weight was augmented by at least 900 lbs of fluid at its peak. The former taxi driver had always been unusually heavy, reaching 400 lbs in 1963, 700 lbs in 1966, and 975 lbs in 1976, but he claimed to have been in no way handicapped by his size until a 500-calorie diet sapped his muscle strength and left him at the brink of death. Subsequent hospitalization brought him down to 476 lbs in 1981, mostly through the loss of 12 to 14 pounds of fluid per week. He was readmitted later that year after regaining 200 lbs in seven days. Although physicians at University Hospital in Seattle persisted in treating him with a 1,200-calorie diet, he weighed about 800 lbs at the time of his death. Other details of his physical condition were withheld from the press. Minnoch was the father of two children by his 110-lb wife, Jeannette. |
| * | 3. | Roselie Bradford (b. 1944) of Sellersville, PA; 5 ft 6 in, measured at 1053 lbs, but estimates that she weighed more than 1200 lbs at her peak two years earlier, a claim accepted by Guinness. Already over 300 lbs when she dropped out of college, Bradford became an exercise instructor, running seven miles three times a week, but continued her steady gain in weight. At 374 lbs she underwent an intestinal bypass operation, which caused serious complications. She was back to 350 lbs when she married her husband Bob in 1973, reached 500 lbs after the birth of her son, and as her body grew, so did her appetite. After contracting septicemia in the early 1980s, she spent most of the next decade in bed, eating - as much as 15,000 calories per day. It wasn't unusual for her to put away three large pizzas in 40 minutes (washing them down with diet soda), then ask for dessert. At her peak, she measured eight feet wide, and took up two reinforced king-size beds. Her bustline measured over 100 inches, and her hips carried 200-lb "saddlebags" that hung down her thighs as far as her knees. "People would visit me and sit on the bed, not realizing they were sitting on part of me," she recalled. When she fell out of bed, rescue workers used an inflatable cushion designed to right overturned cars to get her back into place. After being treated for symptoms of heart failure, she was eventually persuaded by Richard Simmons to embark on a five year diet, an experience she described as hellish. Tortured by hunger, by fast-food commercials, and by dreams in which she ate without limit, she nevertheless got down to under 300 pounds, setting a world's record for weight loss. She later sued the Star tabloid for suggesting that she couldn't have intimate relations with her husband at over half a ton. |
| * | 4. | Michael Edelman (1964 - 1992) of Pomona, NY; Guinness listed him at 994 lbs, but his mother estimates that he weighed some 1200 lbs at his heaviest. He had already reached 154 lbs at age seven, and left school at ten because he could no longer fit into the desks. After that he spent most of his time in bed, or sharing massive meals with his 700-pound mom. Michael liked to start the day with four bowls of cereal, toast, waffles, cake, and a quart of soda, and end it with a whole pizza with the works for a bedtime snack. Mother and son tried every new diet that came along, "but after a few days, we'd reward ourselves with a chocolate cake. Then we'd call for a pizza and that would be it." When the two were evicted from their Wesley Hills home in 1988, Michael had to be moved by forklift. After his exposure in the press, dozens of hospitals and diet promoters vied to get him in a weight-loss program, but Michael was determined to get thin on his own. He appeared in three different tabloids in one week when he publicly vowed to lose enough weight to consummate his relationship with 420-lb Brenda Burdle, but the couple grew apart when they both gained weight instead of losing it. After the sudden death of Walter Hudson (below), with whom he had formed a long-distance friendship, Michael developed a pathological fear of eating. He rapidly lost several hundred pounds, taking nourishment only when spoon fed. At about 600 lbs, he literally starved to death. (Link - 1) |
| 5. |
Walter Hudson (1944? - 1991) of Hempstead, NY (born in Brooklyn, NY); 5 ft 10 in,
measured at 1197 lbs (though the industrial scale broke in the process of weighing him). His
chest was measured at 106 inches, his waist at 110. Hudson was discovered by the press in
1987, when he became wedged in the door of his bedroom and had to be cut free by rescue
workers. An agoraphobic, he'd spent most of the past 27 years in bed. Hudson lived with
his family, where his appetite was always indulged, and gave every indication that he was
content with both his weight and his situation. "I just ate and enjoyed it," he said.
Despite his massive size, Newsday reported that he was
extraordinarily healthy: his
heart, lungs, and kidneys all functioned normally, while astonished
doctors noted that his cholesterol and blood-sugar levels "showed the
chemistry of a healthy 21-year-old." Even so,
activist-turned-nutritionist Dick Gregory managed to convince Hudson
that losing weight was necessary to save his life. Gregory used Hudson
to promote his Bahamian Diet, and claimed that his protegé lost at least
200 lbs (sometimes claiming as much as 800 lbs) under his care, but
when Hudson refused to perform for the cameras on cue, Gregory summarily
abandoned him. Other celebrities and diet promoters also claimed to
have helped him lose massive amounts of weight, though Newsday
noted that Hudson never seemed to look any thinner. (Gregory
threatened to sue his rivals for $50 million.) Hudson himself gave
conflicting stories, sometimes claiming to weigh as little as 480 lbs or
as much as 1400. He only allowed himself to be weighed once. Hudson
died in his sleep after years of intermittent starvation dieting, a few
weeks after announcing wedding plans. His body was found to weigh 1125
lbs, and his massive coffin required twelve pallbearers. (Links - 1, 2) |
| * | 6. |
Francis John Lang, aka Michael Walker (b. 1934) of Gibsonton, FL (born in
Clinton, IA); 6 ft 2 in, believed to have reached a maximum weight of 1187 lbs. Lang had
weighed only 150 lbs as a soldier in Korea. He blamed his masssive weight gain on
prescription drug abuse, claiming that his narcotic of choice had the side effect of giving him
an uncontrollable appetite. Though unable to walk (a handicap that kept more than one fat
lady out of the side show), Lang found a unique way of capitalizing on his situation: he had a
mobile home built with observation windows, and traveled the country putting himself on
display at carnivals and fairs. Lying nearly nude on an oversize circular bed, he preached
to the curious about the evils of drugs, using his own body as the moral lesson. His peak
weight, claimed for him by Christian Farms of Killeen, TX, in the summer of 1971, was
unverified, but Guiness Superlatives found photographic evidence to be reasonably
conclusive. In early 1972 Lang was hospitalized in Houston for a suspected heart attack, at
which time he was estimated to weigh between 900 and 1000 lbs. His symptoms proved to
be caused by an inflamed gallbladder, probably aggravated by his weight loss, and the
examining physician declared his heart to be "unusually normal." By 1980, Lang
had reportedly reduced to 369 lbs. (Link - 1) |
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