Mrs. Katarzyna weighs 200 kg and is begging for help

– Please, somebody help me, because I can’t bear it mentally anymore – laments Ms Katarzyna, who weighs 200 kilograms. – Wounds are constantly forming under the folds of greasy skin, larvae have settled in the bedsores. I don’t get out of bed. And I’m only 40 years old, I want to live a little longer!

1. Mrs. Katarzyna: My erotic life stopped years ago. I am a prisoner of my own body. I don’t remember the last time I went down the stairs by myself
2. Prof. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz: I am very surprised and sad that nobody in the life of this patient stood in the way of diagnosing her in time
3. For extremely obese patients, there are no hospital beds, gynecological and dental chairs, tomographs and operating tables. They don’t work, they live in poverty. They live off benefits
4. The problem of people with extreme obesity is only publicized when the media writes about them. Or when they die and only the funeral industry has adapted to provide services for them

Ms Katarzyna Kubicka-Siejak is 40 years old, weighs 200 kilograms and dreams of being independent again. Just like the heroes of her favorite American documentary series entitled «Stories of great importance» on the TLC Polska TV station.

It is them, under the watchful eye of bariatrist Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, who sometimes manage to lose weight, although eating hundreds of chocolates, crisps, burgers and other fast food has become an addiction. And the only joy in their lives.

– When I watch this program, I see myself in it. I am also unable to wash myself. I can’t fit in the shower. The thought of entering the bathroom terrifies me, paralyzes me. Sometimes my husband and a little sister help me in everyday hygiene. Even so, wounds continue to form under the folds of greasy skin, which need to be lubricated with ointments. My erotic life stopped years ago. I am a prisoner of my own body. I live on the top, fourth floor of an old tenement house in Poznań and I don’t remember the last time I went down the stairs alone – says Katarzyna.

A stretcher made of blankets and snakes

In June this year, paramedics and firefighters carried it down the stairs.

– I think there were ten of them. They didn’t have stretchers on which they would be able to lift me, so they tied the blankets to some sheets with fire hoses and they barely carried me on this makeshift. Every few stairs they had to rest, and in the ambulance they put them on the floor, like some goods – he recalls. But her stay in the hospital was necessary as pressure ulcers and skin necrosis were becoming a real threat of amputation.

— I am getting antibiotics. So far they are not helping. My condition worsened, some larvae appeared in the bedsores. And the hospital bed bursts beneath me – he says.

9 million obese Poles

– I am very surprised and sad that nobody who would diagnose her in time stood on the path of this patient. And he would try to do anything before he got to that stage of the disease. If this had been done and effective treatment had been started, the disease would not have gained such a degree of severity – analyzes Prof. dr hab. n. med. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz, president of the Polish Society for the Study of Obesity.

Because although obesity is a disease that is entered on the International List of Diseases and Health Problems of the World Health Organization with the E66 code, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation in the Polish health care system are insufficient.

– Overweight affects as much as 70 percent. Poles. About 9 million people suffer from obesity, and about 40 are extremely obese, i.e. those with a BMI of 800 or more. – enumerates prof. Olszanecka-Glinianowicz. – We rank high in this disgraceful ranking. Yes, it is much worse in many countries, but it is no consolation for us – he adds.

Trapped in their apartments

Magdalena Gajda, founder and president of the Od-Weight Foundation, Social Ombudsman for the Rights of People with Obesity and a founding member of the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity, which, weighing 152 kilograms, decided in the past to bariatric surgery, in order to imagine the scale of the problem of extremely obese obesity, he gives an example from Zamość.

– In only one apartment block, we managed to locate three such people. It is easy to imagine how many of them are imprisoned in other cities – Gajda analyzes and adds that the problem of these people is only mentioned on the occasion of social campaigns.

– Or when they die. Because paradoxically, the only industry that has immediately adapted to deal with people with extremely obese obesity is the funeral industry. These people need to be buried somehow – he notes.

The funeral industry has quickly adapted …

“Funeral parlors also encounter the increasingly obese deceased” – we read on the website okmacji.blogspot.pl.

«The obesity of a deceased person causes a number of complications in organizing cremation. First, the problem is the coffin. A deceased with high obesity does not fit into a standard coffin. It is necessary to make a cremation coffin to order, which means higher costs for the family.

Second, it is more difficult to get the coffin into the cremation furnace. On the Polish market, most crematoria have the option of putting a coffin with the body of the deceased weighing up to 250-300 kg into the furnace. If this weight is exceeded, a problem may arise. Then, additional personnel or additional support from the device for introducing the coffin into the oven may be necessary. Then the personnel operating the furnace is exposed to greater risk.

Thirdly, the standard dimensions of the cremation chamber opening through which the coffin is inserted into the oven are about 80 cm – 100 cm wide and about 90 cm high. If the deceased is incinerated in a specially made coffin, it may not fit into the cremation chamber.

Fourth, during the cremation process of an obese person, flammable fat is melted out. This fat may escape from the furnace through the inlet door or other process openings and create a fire hazard ».

Specialized equipment as a medicine

It is the daily life of extremely obese people that medical facilities do not adapt to their treatment. Hospitals, outpatient clinics, outpatient clinics and rehabilitation centers lack basic equipment: scales, blood pressure monitors, and beds. The purchase of a bariatric ambulance for years is an event every time. The first such ambulance appeared in Poland in 2014, in Krakow, and was triumphantly hailed as “the only one in the country”. However, the purchase was a necessity, because the local paramedic teams had to provide help to patients weighing up to 290 kg.

– There is a lack of equipment, gynecological and dental chairs, tomographs, operating tables for diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering from extremely obese. They live in poverty and live off welfare benefits because illness prevents them from working. They live in houses that are not adapted to their needs and even if they leave them sometimes, they will not be able to walk through the door of the doctor’s office with a wheelchair, Gajda lists.

There is no medical procedure

– This is not common knowledge, but in our country there is not even any rescue procedure in the event of an attempt to rescue a patient weighing more than 150 kilograms. If such a person has an accident at home then all emergency services are called. But paramedics, firefighters, city guards or policemen spread their hands and do not really know what to do with such a patient – says the president of the Od-Libra Foundation.

He also emphasizes that thanks to her foundation, the Office of the Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights began to carry out regular monitoring of medical facilities in terms of adapting them to the needs of people with morbid obesity.

– We started to make the medical community aware that such a list exists and if a given hospital does not want to admit, care for and treat an obese patient, it may look for another facility for him – he explains.

The Effects of Obesity: From Diabetes to Cancer

Obesity is a disease that must be treated for many reasons. Even economic: experts calculate that in the next 30 years, Poland will lose about 4,1 percent due to overweight and obesity as well as diseases caused by overweight and obesity. GDP.

The list of health consequences of obesity is very long. They can be divided into two groups: metabolic and non-metabolic. The former include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, arterial hypertension, gout, hormonal disorders, fertility disorders, eye disorders, cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, and ending with cancer.

– At the same time, I can name at least a dozen cancers caused by excess body fat. The non-metabolic effects of obesity include those associated with mechanical stress, i.e. degenerative changes in the joints and dermatological changes, obese sleep apnea and hypoventilation syndromes, gastroesophageal reflux, hiatal hernia, gall bladder stones, depression and anxiety states, says Prof. Olszanecka-Glinianowicz.

DrDiagnoza.com offers a panel of diagnostic tests for obesity. It is recommended to perform the examinations regularly every year. The offered package allows you to diagnose the causes of obesity.

When food is the reward

He also points out that obesity is a complex disease. – We live in difficult times. Food is something that stimulates our need for reward, makes us feel better for a while. There are many such “awards”, including alcohol and cigarettes, but food is not socially stigmatized. As a society, we need to understand that the main role in obesity is played by the brain and its neurotransmitters, not the stomach. Dopamine and endogenous opioids are responsible for our good mood. When we lack them, we need stimulants, and it is worth knowing that food increases the production of dopamine by as much as half – emphasizes prof. Olszanecka-Glinianowicz.

Stereotypically, extremely obese people are believed to be able to consume huge portions of meals in one sitting. Meanwhile, overeating may look different.

– Compulsive overeating can be frequent “nibbling”: sandwich here, chocolate there, cookie, carbonated sweet drink. Then lunch, ice cream, a slice of sausage, candies, dinner and bedtime chocolates – explains prof. Olszanecka-Glinianowicz.

Hope: New Bariatric Surgery Centers

One of the qualification criteria for surgical treatment of people with extreme obesity is whether the patient will be capable of self-care after surgery in the future and whether he can count on the support of his family and environment.

– However, the correct diagnosis of the patient is essential, both medical and psychological. Because people who have a prognosis can be operated. Obviously, the patient must be cured of any infections prior to bariatric surgery. The next stage is a consultation at a bariatric surgery center. The draft regulation of the Minister of Health of the comprehensive care program for patients treated for morbid obesity treated surgically, the so-called KOS-BAR. It assumes that the patient will be treated in a coordinating center, among others in Warsaw and Krakow. This is to ensure comprehensive care before and after the operation – says hopefully Prof. Olszanecka-Glinianowicz.

Katarzyna: I still want to live

Ms Katarzyna Kubicka-Siejak is desperate and desperate. The hospital bed has just broken underneath it, the lift is not working.

– Please, somebody help me, because I can’t stand it mentally anymore. I do not wish anyone to be in my place and similar humiliation. And just like me: he pissed through the catheter, he dealt with heavy needs in the diaper, he cried while listening to the unpleasant comments of the medical staff who washed me. After all, I’m only 40 years old, I want to live …

This may interest you:

1. Obese people will lose weight if they go on a diet and keep moving? It’s a myth
2. 10 serious diseases that obesity can cause. Some are surprising

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