841-pound woman dies after massive heart attack

original Houston Chronicle at chron.com
Renee Williams, the 841-pound woman thought to be the largest ever to receive gastric bypass surgery, died Sunday night of a massive heart attack.

Williams, 29, had undergone the increasingly popular solution to morbid obesity on Feb. 20 and was thought to be progressing well in the week and a half thereafter, said officials at Houston's Renaissance Hospital, where she had the surgery. But hospital officials today announced the sudden turn of events.

The procedure, once frowned on by mainstream doctors, has soared in popularity, with more than 140,000 expected to be performed this year. It makes the stomach smaller and bypasses part of the small intestine, resulting in a patient who feels full more quickly, has less of an appetite and absorbs fewer calories.

There's a small risk when it is performed on people with a BMI, or body mass index, between 35 and 60, but a signficantly larger one when the patient is the size of Williams, who had a BMI of 137.5.

www.chron.com...

I guess the main thing is to not let your body get to the point that she did.
This is a sad case.



[edit on 6-3-2007 by Royal76]

if this is the woman who was on tv a week or so ago it is even sadder because she had a small daughter. I remember seeing how upset the daughter was when they were taking the woman out of the house and when she was in the hospital.

I'm kind of thinking it's the same woman too, and I'm pretty disgusted!

As I recall she couldn't walk or anything, and I'm really upset at her caregivers. Someone was doing the grocery shopping around her place for her, and that would be a perfect opportunity for someone to take some control, and bring in healthy things to eat instead of chips, and all the other crap it takes for someone addicted to food to get That Heavy! I mean... My God! They certainly weren't doing this poor woman any favors.

I know she's ultimately responsible for her own judgments, she did this to herself, but If I had a friend like that, that I loved.... I would take control from her, and do what I could to help make a difference instead of adding to her problems. Some one has to be the Hard A** in a situation like that.

I remember when my husbands Grandma was still smoking in her chair, and burning herself, and dropping cigarettes on the carpet…well, somebody had to be the bad guy and take the smokes away, and that’s what happened. Yeah she was pissed, but she couldn’t do a damn thing about it!

It’s a different addiction, but the same method should have been applied. I’m done bitching now

Well, its too bad for the woman, but i would certainly encarcerate the "enabler"- you know...the SOB who kept giving her 5 roasted chickens for breakfast?

I sincerely think enablers should do jail time.


She would have never reached that stage of largeness if she didnt have HELP. :shk:

I'm glad you agree with me. The enablers, why do they do it?

I know a lady whose son is pretty large, and do you think she will help the kid? Hell No! She keeps bringing Little Debbie's, and Soda…chips galore, cookies...you name it, she buys it. She could take complete control of what comes into the house, and simply decide not to tempt the boy with all the junk. Of course he’s going to eat it if it’s around…. kids love junk!

I don’t buy crap like that! My kids are so happy to reach for that apple! If you want people to eat right, you need to start them out- right at a young age!

Finding out that an 841 lb. woman died reminded me of Fletch.

Dr. Joseph Dolan: You know, it's a shame about Ed.
Fletch: Oh, it was. Yeah, it was really a shame. To go so suddenly like that.
Dr. Joseph Dolan: Ahh, he was dying for years.
Fletch: Sure, but... the end was really... very sudden.
Dr. Joseph Dolan: He was in intensive care for eight weeks.
Fletch: Yeah, but I mean the very end, when he actually died. That was extremely sudden.

Peace

Are usually weak-minded people who just don't want to fight with the person. It really sickens me we I see 200lb 8 years olds, they should be taken away from the parents. When I was a kid I got by with a lot of crap. My parents let me drink soda, had a lot of fattening food. I didn't like veggies, and my mom finally relented.But my dad made me join every sport their was. I was busy year round, in the off time he was my personal gym teacher. We would have jump rope sessions, were I would owe him 2,000 jumps. I would usually try to knock them out in 250 reps at a time and drink some water,etc.
My sister has gone another way. She doesn't allow any soda, or candy for her children. They eat regular food, she adapted them to like veggies early, and they prefer the odd veggies some times. I think it comes down to teaching them early. While my food intake could use some work, I still try and exercise like when I was a kid. It was engrained into me at a young age.

841 Pounds?! Good God, how do these people manage to get that fat? Geez, around here the people who are considered severly obese are 350 pounds max.

When my pants start getting tight I just stop eating and start doing mad crunches, are people just so lazy they can't take 8 minutes out of their day to do a simple little exersize which would help keep those pounds down?

[edit on 18-4-2007 by aaronman]

she died?!?!? wow, that's suprising.

unless it's a genetic disease you should not get that fat

Hand to mouth disease.

With all the knowledge about food and nutrition that is avalible these days it's just crazy that people still get to such a size.

It's the fat gene, it's a throid problem, over active jaw muscles... hmm not so sure about all that.

Easy life, easy food, easy chair and a nasty death!

I dont beleive there is any reason what so every to be overweight. I dont beleive in genetics having to do with it either.

It is a shame such a young woman had to die, yet (go ahead and hate me for this) i feel no sorrow or pity. Its her fault she got that big. If you step on the scale and it says 300lbs, you'd better start a diet and start exercising. If you step on the Scale and it says 500lbs. you had better go see a nutrition and maybe get the gastrobypass surgery. by the time you get to 841lbs. you should definitly do everything in your power to lose the weight.

Changing something as simple as swapping your daily drink of soda for a bottle of water can lead to about 33lbs of weight loss a year. Thats a lot.

I'm kinda curious as to what caused the heart attack though, was it the weight or the surgery? Because common sense would say weight, but that surgery does have a percentage factor that you might not make it alive through the surgery, so maybe the surgery had an after affect that caused the attack...

I dont know, i'm not a doctor. And im still going to say it was the weight, but it makes you think.