Man Weighed 578 Pounds - His Sister Weighed 579

[matcom]

<snip>

It started with a terrible dream: Cyrus Tehrani had died. At the funeral, his wife and six children wept over his outsized coffin.

That nightmare jolted Joe Guarderas awake. He knew that if his best friend Cyrus, 34, didn't take drastic action, the dream would become reality.

Cyrus had grown gargantuan. His girth had destroyed his knees, spiked his blood pressure, sapped his breath and landed him in the hospital for several days with severe leg swelling.

Cyrus' older sister, Sheila Tehrani, 37, was just as big, and just as imperiled. Only a pound separated the siblings: Cyrus weighed 578, Sheila 579.

Guarderas hatched a plan. "If you knew Cyrus was going to die," Guarderas recalled asking the healthier Sheila, "would you give anything to get him back?"

"In a heartbeat," Sheila replied.

"Would you give up the house?"

"Of course," Sheila replied.

Well, said Guarderas, "that's what you may have to do."

That conversation late in 2004 launched the Tehranis' last-ditch attempt to shed the weight that was slowly smothering them. Surgery to slash their food intake would cost at least $25,000 each. With no health insurer willing to pay, the only recourse was to refinance the house they had inherited from their father. Sheila still lives in a studio apartment behind the house.

Sheila researched options on the Internet and made an appointment with one of Los Angeles' most experienced bariatric surgeons, Dr. Carson Liu.

Liu wondered if it was too late. Had the siblings become so huge that the surgery was too risky?

Vast numbers of Americans face a similar predicament. They have outgrown the weightiest medical description: morbid obesity. About 725,000 to a million people fit in this "super-obese" category.

But even that term is no longer expansive enough for the Tehranis and a fast-rising number of others. Between 140,000 and 400,000 Americans are believed to weigh more than 400 pounds. Liu dubs them the "super-duper" obese.

more...


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-superobese4jan04,1,102800,full.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true

[MissMillie]

1. Good for them!

I didn't have 400 lbs. to lose, but having my surgery was the most positive thing I have ever done for myself (well, that and quitting smoking). Losing a little weight motivated me to lose more, and to make the important changes involving exercise and fitness. My life is drastically different. I am so healthy that my doctor insists I will live forever. And it's amazing how much more energy you have when you don't have to lug around an extra 100 lbs. all day long. (Not just the energy either--my temperament has improved dramatically.)

[Shell Beau]

2. This just doesn't seem like one of your stories!!

Is it a slow "weird news" day? I felt like I was reading the beginning of a novel. :silly: I hope they got healthy though!

[Schema Thing]

3. Your headline has all the makings

to the start of a great blues song.

Man Weighed 578 Pounds
His Sister Weighed 579
They would'a gotta lap band
But the train was not on time

(chorus)


*play me some saxaphone, big man*

[Orsino]

4. Sibling rivalry can be carried too far. n/t

[Deja Q]

5. Hmmm, those who like threesomes could have a ton of fun!

:rofl:

In bad taste, sorry... :spank: