Obesity Issues in the Medical Field

There is a growing trend in the medical field, as people get more and more obese, the products need to properly take care of them need to grow larger and stronger to handle the extra bulk.

Case Study: Calgary

Calgary has just received an ambulance that can carry people who weight up to a thousand pounds! Yes, a thousand pounds! The new ambulance features a remote lifting system, air mattress that blows up under the patient and wider work rooms in the back.

We got it backwards!

Paramedics are increasingly having problems getting some patients to medical rooms because they simply cannot handle the bulk of some people who choose through daily actions to let themselves go. These super-morbidly-obese people then have the gull to call 911 and request medical services. I simply do not get it, I don’t know of any medical condition that is able to get somebody up to these atrocious weights while eating a normal diet and exercise regimen. Being super-morbidly-obese is a choice and I don’t really care as to the cause. These people have problems, big ones (no pun intended) and by serving them, we are only making things worse for the medical industry, the staff and ultimately, the health conscious patient themselves. A paramedic is a very precious commodity, if they throw out their back carrying somebody who obviously doesn’t care about themselves, this is going to put able-bodied people who do care for themselves at risk. I think we need to step back a little in the medical field and revise certain oaths taken by people in the medical field to essentially say:

Take care of yourself, we will help take care of you.
Neglect yourself, we will help dig a hole.

Live with your choices

If you choose to live a life of unhealthy habits, you are responsible for your own health care. 911 will come pick-up your body should you have a heart attack at 700lbs but don’t expect them to use a moving crane to get you into the Operating Theater in order to save the life you have chosen to throw away. If you choose to smoke your entire life and end up with lung cancer, then you have to drag your own butt into the Hospital, purchase your own unsubsidized Oxygen and drag your butt back home… you want a lung transplant? I don’t think so, healthy people have first priority. I believe health is the ultimate personal responsibility. Getting hit by a bus while your healthy which causes medical conditions is one thing, choosing to neglect your body which causes medical conditions is quite another.

The Bottom Line

Health is a choice more often that not, it cannot be ignored.

References
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/06/21/obese-ambulance.html