Originally Posted by Article

JUAREZ, Mexico - A 990-pound bedridden man who had appealed on Mexican television for help tackling his weight problem died Tuesday of heart failure, his family said.

Emergency officials had to knock down Jose Luis Garza's bedroom wall and load him onto the back of a friend's pickup truck as he fought for his life. The 47-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in northern Mexico.

Garza followed in the footsteps of the world's fattest man, fellow Mexican Manuel Uribe of Monterrey, by taking his weight problem public. Garza lived about an hour away from Uribe in the town of Juarez.

Garza said he always struggled with his weight, but that he fell into a desperate cycle of depression and overeating nine months ago after his parents died of natural causes within two weeks of each other. He had been bedridden for four months.

Garza's condition deteriorated over the weekend as he struggled to breathe and eat. At his funeral, family members slammed state officials for not moving Garza to a hospital before he became critically ill.

"If he had received support at the time he asked for it, he would still be with us," said his brother Pedro Garza.

State officials argued there was little they could do.

"The attention he would have received at a hospital would have been the same he got at home," said Julio Cesar Cano, spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state health department. "Moving a patient of that magnitude is very difficult. A normal ambulance won't work."

Uribe, whose record weight of 1,230 pounds earned him a place in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records, has claimed to have lost around 550 pounds by following the Zone Diet invented by Dr. Barry Sears.

Uribe tried to help Garza by sending him kiwis, grapefruit, pears and a protein supplement. Uribe's fiancee, Claudia Solis, delivered the food on Friday evening.

Originally Posted by Muzza (Post 650534)

The government could probably have done something

Originally Posted by Chaotic (Post 650528)

If the family knew he was sick, they should've just gotten the ton of lard to the hospital themselves. The family is just looking to blame someone for their stupid mistake of not getting him there earlier.

Originally Posted by Traveller87 (Post 650543)

Wow, that's really sensitive there. With supportive people like you around, I wonder why these things happen. Would your reaction be the same if he had been anorexic and starved himself to death, while pleading for help on TV before?

Originally Posted by Terminus (Post 650542)

Should've asked for help when he got depressed...

Originally Posted by Crash Landon (Post 650547)

Spoken like someone who's never been depressed.

See, that's the thing about depression, it's a general feeling of hopelessness. Asking for help in that state of mind feels like a rather futile gesture. He had to come to grips with the loss of both parents in the same fortnight, that's a lot for anyone to handle - not only the fat person but his entire family.



Again, they just dealt with the loss of the two parents. Aside from the typical grieving period each individual must deal with, they probably had to tend to the estate and oversee all the funerial costs. That's a lot of work, I've done it. Plus, depression isn't something that happens in one day, it's gradual and for people whose lives have been temporarily turned on end, I imagine it might be quite easy to overlook the signs of depression because it's just not a priority.

Plus, think about it - the guy was already an overeater and rarely moved from one spot. Spotting depression in this case might be just a smidge harder than your cynical mind suspects.

But he eventually did seek help. He addressed his own depression and was willing to do something about it. His government basically responded with "No, we're not gonna bother." I know it's not the government's fault that he let his condition sink so low but I also don't think he was asking for the moon. "Take me to a place where I can receive the proper attention and care" is a far cry from "Use your magic to make me skinny again!"

I guess I feel a bit poorly for him. He made a last-ditch plea and the only person who answered was the other fattie down the highway - and his answer was "Here, eat this, you'll feel better." Kinda sad.

Originally Posted by Shin (Post 650570)

I think the family had a case for asking for help right up until the guy got bed-ridden. After that, as he's clearly unable to get his own food, they had to be feeding him and obviously they weren't just feeding him the 1,000 or so calories a day a recumbent needs. I'm pretty sure you don't have to be a doctor to realise that when someone weighs a fucking ton, they could do with eating less yet they kept feeding him until he died. If you did that to a dog you'd get prosecuted for animal cruelty in this country so I fail to see how doing it to a person allows you to blame someone else when that person carps it. Anyway, it's not like he was unaware of his situation. The fat fuck was in the Guinnes book of records which means someone called them to show him off, more than likely a family member or even himself. I have no sympathy for fatties at the best of times, the ones that eat themselves into the grave are especially pathetic.

Originally Posted by Shin (Post 650617)

Basically, fat people are pathetic and the faster they die off the better it is for the rest of society.

Originally Posted by Rotorblade (Post 650624)

LOL at the idea of bullies only messing with the fat kids.

Your forehead's sloping, Shin.