Title: 600-Pound Woman Dies After Being Surgically Removed From Couch
Source: wftv
URL Source: http://www.wftv.com/news/3643877/detail.html
Published: Aug 11, 2004
Author: wftv
Post Date: 2004-08-11 19:53:18 by TLBSHOW
21 Comments


STUART, Fla. -- A dramatic rescue ended tragically in Stuart, Florida, a rescue so difficult firefighters say they have never seen anything like it.

It happened late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning at the home of a 600-pound woman who was having trouble breathing. Rescuers went in not knowing how difficult it would be to get her out. 40-year-old Gail Grinds was literally stuck to her couch and had to be removed surgically at the hospital.

Authorities estimate she had been on the couch anywhere from two to five years.

Martin County Fire amd Rescue crews faced what seemed to be an impossible mission. Everyone going inside had to wear protective gear. The stench was so powerful they had to blast in fresh air.

They tried to cut out the front door, but at four-and-a-half feet wide, it wouldn't work. They had to cut plywood since a normal stretcher wouldn't do.

An ambulance was too small, so they brought in a trailer to get her out. While rescue crews came up with a back-door rescue plan, detectives secured what had become a crime scene, questioning family members about how it got so bad.

Using planks, they loaded the woman on to the trailer, still attached to the couch. Removing her would be too painful, since her body is grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin has literally become one with the sofa and it must be surgically removed.

Detectives are investigating whether they have a case of neglect, or if it is simply a very sad story.

Grinds was taken to the Martin Memorial hospital where doctors removed her from the couch, but she died in spite of all the attempts to save her life.

wow this story is so sad & yet it makes me wonder...how does one let themselves get so morbidly obese?? I would think that when ya get to a certain point weight wise you would step back & say "hey I gotta analize my eating habits" or "hey maybe I should think about my health & not about another Twinkie"!!
My husband is a paramedic & he has told me about a few runs that he's made where the patient was so heavy that they had to call in extra firefighters just to help lift. I can not even fathom someone being stuck to their couch!
Wow so I just had a nasty thought...I guess the couch was her toilet as well??

Yummmmm..... Thanks for the visual. I will be putting my brownie I WAS eating away for now.

ya well when you are eating & you come across a sentence that starts with "I just had a nasty thought" ya might not want to continue to read on!

I think the person feeding her should be charged...

I think the person charging her, should be fed...

It sounds so far fetched. Is it real? Like Fiesty said, was she not using a toilet then? I just don't understand how it could happen. And she was 40 years old. Why would they charge anyone with neglect? She's old enough to know when to stop eating and when to get up off the couch. Unless she was handicapped in some way. Strange, hard to believe.

I am usually big into personal responsibility and not blaming others. But here I'm not sure someone wasn't neglectful, IMO. This isn't much different than watching someone slowly poison themselves to death and not telling anyone or putting a stop to it. The person who died couldn't be mentally all "with it" or else she would either have either demanded help or done something to help herself long ago. If she did not, I'd say she had to be mentally ill, so the person who watched this go on for weeks/years was negligent in some way. JMO.

Last year I went to one of my nephews pee wee football games in Va, and there was a child on the opposing team (my nephew is 10) who weighed 210 lbs!

I was watching the Preston Md. little league game last night and there was a 12 yr. old boy who was 5'8" and weighed 215. Is there any chance this kid won't be 400 lbs. by the time he's in high school? To his credit at least he was playing and not melting into the couch