Paul Mason, once the world's fattest man, suing NHS for not helping him sufficiently with obesity

[The Northerner]

The world's fattest man wants to fight obesity: with a lawsuit.

Paul Mason, who once weighed almost 1,000 pounds, is blaming the NHS (Britain's public health system) for sending him to dietitians who merely told him to lose weight -- but didn't identify his problem as an eating disorder, British newspaper the Sun reported.

The former postal worker told the Sun that when he went to the NHS for help with his eating as early as 1996, he was told to "ride your bike more."

Years later, after tipping the scales at 900 pounds -- while scarfing down 20,000 calories a day -- he was sent to a dietitian before finally getting life-saving gastric surgery.

News of the lawsuit came shortly after the debut of his television show, "Britain's Fattest Man," which chronicled his journey toward gastric bypass surgery to more than 2.49 million viewers.

According to the show, Mason, 50, cost British taxpayers more than $3,000 a week before getting the surgery. That weekly estimate doesn't include the cost of firefighters knocking down the front of his home so they could get a forklift inside to get him out for hernia surgery in 2002 or the gastric surgery that cost around $50,000 in 2009.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/01/07/2011-01-07_paul_mason_once_the_worlds_fattest_man_suing_nhs_for_not_helping_him_sufficientl.html?r=news

[Sonoman]

1. To paraphrase Led Zep

"It's everyone's fault but mine"


"Somebody peed in my pants."

Buck up, dude.

Sonoman

[givemebackmycountry]

3. Sorry Sonoman...you got it wrong....

"It's no-no-nobody's fault but mine"
Crashing guitar by Page follows....

[Sonoman]

4. That's why I used the term...

"To paraphrase".

Sonoman

[howaboutme]

2. Obesity comes primarily

from eating too much and not accepting personal responsibility to do difficult things, and also from genes....none of which has anything to do with most others. I don't buy the law suit.

Yes I've watched all the documentaries such as Food Inc and Super Size Me but I don't buy the BS that individuals are exempt from responsibility. I've watched my 5' 400 pound neighbor eat more junk food in one meal than I eat in days. Life is not easy and it takes perseverance to overcome. I agree that corporate manipulation of advertising, and food processing and trade pacts and other political trickery has increased the price of good food.

We people must get involved in politics, but that doesn't exempt us from over-eating.

[Poboy]

5. It used to be said that Paul Mason will sell no wine before its time.

I do not know if that is true, but I do remember it being said.

[jallo]

6. ironic, considering Orson Welles was their spokesperson.

He later went into business with Dolly Parton selling shade

[Codeine]

7. The NHS did not feed you 20,00 calories a day, hotshot.

I can't comprehend how one could ram that amount of food down one's swollen gullet. It must have required tamping it down with a pool cue or something.

[Quantess]

9. Yeah, what were they supposed to have done?

Wire his jaw shut? Lock him up, away from food?
He only has himself to blame.

[phasma ex machina]

8. Excepting Mason the wannabe boob tube star, I'm sympathetic towards over-eaters.

Anglo-American culture values power, money, and sex. The uniqueness that each individual brings into the world is worthless to the Anglo-American culture. Too many people get conditioned into feeling worthless and compensate with various addictions.

[PavePusher]

10. And that is a choice they make. Sorry... n/t

[GeorgeGist]

11. Fat headed.