Bariatric patient

[cafra23]

Hello,

I am a physio working in the community and have received a referral from an occuptaional therapist to assist with a morbidly obese patient she is seeing.

The lady weighs approximately 50 stone (300kgs) and has been housebound in the upstairs of her home for 2 years. She is mobile to the bathroom, but due to excessive skin folds around her abdomen she is very heavy anteriorly. She can tollerate standing for around 3 minutes before haing to lay back down.

Due to structural problems within her home, it has become necessary to move her downstairs, as the ceiling of her room could colapse under the added weight of her the necessary equipment that the OT would like to have put in.

I would like to know if anyone has experience of working with morbidly obese patients, and if so, from what I have described do you think it possible that she would be able to make it down the stairs safely, and if so how do we get her to that point. Our biggest concern is that she get half way down the stairs and be unable to go any further. At least from her bedroom there is the possibility of taking out the window and have the fire brigade help (although it would be very undignified for her).

It's a bit of an unusual one, but any advice would be greatly appreciated as at the moment we are just trying to problem solve. We have a structural engineer coming out to the home to assess the urgency of the move, but it is unlikely that we will be able to wait for her to loose the weight.

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[morwenna]

I suppose my first thought in this case was who is bringing her food for two years?? Perhaps they could stop!

I know, we shouldn't be judgemental, and that's not helpful though, sorry.

So back to your problem. Is she physically able to fit down the stairwell?
Going down of course should be easier than going up, so long as she doesn't panic and refuse to move.

I think the idea of the Fire Brigade to help is a good one, although if they could manage the deal inside rather than taking out a window.....

I was wondering if the stairway could be made into some sort of a chute, and sufficiently strong people could lower her down it??

I have seen TV footage of somebody being lifted out of their bedroom so I guess that is an option if not possible any other way. Good Luck! Be interesting to hear what the outcome is.