New obesity clinic treats the biggest of the big
At almost 400 kilograms, Steve Parish became so obese he was boxed in his bedroom for two and a half years.
“Eating that much, I got that big I was trapped in here, I couldn't get out of my room,” Steve said.
Steve is one of many patients who have been treated at a specialist obesity clinic at Camden Hospital, set up to treat the biggest of the big has seen remarkable results.
The clinic is fitted with super-sized furniture and uses a mind and body approach to help some patients lose more than 200 kilograms.
Before he came to the clinic, a typical day for Steve involved 14 cups of coffee, three plates of spaghetti, six packets of jellybeans, and that was just the start.
“One day the wall just gave way, I went straight through the wall,” Steve said.
Similarly, obesity patient Brian Aitken became so large he had to use an oxygen machine to breathe properly.
“I was that fat around the neck that I couldn't breathe,” he said.
Before he became trapped in his own house, Brian used four mobility scooters to get around.
An out-of-work engineer, Brian used his designing mind to figure out ways to hide food around the house, including in a draw full of light bulbs.
Brian and Steve ended up at Australia's first one-stop-shop for the morbidly obese, purpose-built from the walls to the doors, with wheelchairs, chars and beds which are designed to hold more than 400 kilograms.
“A lot of these people are walking time bombs – that is, if they still can walk,” Dr Nic Kormas from NSW Health said.
“I mean I'm a specialist doctor – we have specialist nurses, we have dieticians, we have psychologists, we have physiotherapists, we have exercise physiologists and we have podiatrists,” he said.
“And in the most extreme cases, and as a last resort, we sometimes even do bariatric surgery.”
“For surgery to be a real option for a patient, they must have a severe weight problem that's currently affecting their health, or has a high risk of affecting their health, and they've tried over many years to bring their weight under control through non-surgical means,” Obesity Surgeon Dr Craig Taylor said.
Two years later and 200 kilograms lighter, Steve is a shadow of his former self.
“This saved my life, this place,” said Steve.
“In 2011, I was not going to see Christmas – simple,” said Brian.
When it comes to whether or not the high cost of the clinic is worth it, Dr Nic says definitely.
“Brian was on thousands of dollars worth of medication every year – he's no longer on most of those medications – Steve's been on social welfare and was destined to be on social welfare for the next forty years - he's just about ready to go back to work."
