480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch

[Supormom]

http://www.wftv.com/newsofthestrange/3643877/detail.html

STUART, Fla. -- A 480-pound Martin County woman has died after emergency workers tried to remove her from the couch where she had remained for about six years.

Gayle Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.

Everyone going inside the home had to wear protective gear. The stench was so powerful they had to blast in fresh air.

A preliminary autopsy on the the four-foot, ten-inch woman lists the cause of death as "morbid obesity." But officials want to know more about the circumstances inside the home.

Investigators say Grinds lived with a man named Herman Thomas, who says he tried to take care of her the best he could. He has told them he tried repeatedly to get her up, but simply couldn't. No charges have been filed, but officials are looking into negligence issues.

[wtmusic]

1. I only have two years left

sorry...this is sad.

[Bertha Venation]

2. "officials are looking into negligence issues" that's a start

that ought to lead to manslaughter. Thomas -- you fucking prick.

[rocktivity]

3. I saw a 600-pound woman on an afternoon talk show

Her voice alarmed me than her size--the way she wheezed, she sounded like she was just five seconds away from a heart attack.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Inland]

4. The good news is that the couch is doing much better, thank you

[Domitan]

5. If you want to think of something very horrible

imagine what happened because she could not go to the washroom. The urinary and digestive system still went on regardless.

[giant_robot]

6. OMG!

Look at this part:

<snip>

Removing her from the couch would be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin had literally become one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.

<snip>

What a horribly disturbing mental image THAT is giving me! Yeccch!

[grytpype]

7. How much do they want for the couch?

I'll bet they'd give you a really good deal on that couch...

[Skittles]

8. horribly sad

I get the feeling that sometimes extreme obesity is a slow form of suicide.

[0007]

9. If Ms Grinds had a one pound bowel moment every day for

six years while attached to her sofa, she would have defecated two thousand one hundred and ninty pounds of feces.

I gues Herman Thomas was kept fairly busy, 'eh? God what a shitty story.

Poor women.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. At 480 pounds I'm surprised she lived that long.

Herman Thomas must have kept feeding her even if she could get up.

480 pounds? I weighed 270 at my heaviest (I'm now down to 210) and I'm a guy.