health professionals v. fatties (round 786)
Making news today (again) is the apparent difficulty doctors and nurses have in dealing with fatties.
You can read the article here
Basically the nurses are saying the can’t move fat patients on their own and so need cranes etc or extra staff in order to do so. I thought lifting apparatus was mandatory anyway? I thought the unions had made it so that nurses weren’t allowed to lift ANY patients, fat or otherwise… And apparently doctors are having trouble examining fat patients yada yada yada.
Now to me, the obvious answers would be that doctors need to improve their existing skills or learn new ones. They have to ADAPT. But I guess asking the medical profession to do new stuff that wasn’t originally their idea is kind of cheeky (drip drip drip). It is mentioned that bigger beds, bigger gowns and bigger blood pressure cuffs are required in order to treat fatties. Now if all those things were needed to treat premmie babies, sports injuries or car accident victims, I am sure there would be no issue. But because we are talking about fatties and ALL fatties are fat by choice, we can’t possibly expect hospitals etc to outlay more money to accommodate us, or so that, gasp, they can do the job we are paying them to do…
The suggestions is made the fatties only be treated at the hospitals equipped to deal with their fatness. Yep, I can see that saving more lives… some parts of Australia have trouble accessing any sort of hospital let alone a fat specific one…
The complaint regarding taking blood, inserting catheters and IV lines… well I find that interesting. I am deathfatz (morbidly obese) and I have never had any medical professional have trouble doing any of those things to me. I would think the patient who is big enough to have their fat hinder those procedures would have to be much larger than I am and those people are actually a minority in the population. Most fat people are overweight, obese or morbidly obese, they are not (despite what the media etc would have us believe) ’supersized’ (I hate that term personally).
The only time I have had my fat hinder any medical procedure was when I was in the very early stages of my pregnancy with my daughter and it was apparently difficult to feel my uterus through my stomach and I was sent for an internal ultrasound. But then I know many slim women who have also been sent for internal ultrasounds at that point in their pregnancies so who knows…
Personally I think this all comes back to a lack of compassion. Society hates fatties and so rushes to any opportunity to show us all how much of a burden fatties are on the system. It all comes back the mighty dollar, extra resources cost money and gods forbid we should spend money on fatties, cos you know that just enables them to stay fat and fat is evil so we can’t have them staying that way… easier just to let them suffer and die.
Sounds extreme doesn’t it? But really, that is what it comes down to. Conform or we will do our best to get rid of you. Your choice. Yeah, some choice…
The comment about limiting where obese people are admitted to is absolutely appalling.However, I will say that, as a doctor, I agree with the article that a person’s size can make procedures and diagnosis more difficult. Inserting IV lines can be very hard in an obese person due to difficulty finding a vein
(and not just in a supersized person). Maintaining sterile procedure in inserting a catheter is going to be much more difficult if there is not a gap between the person’s legs.
These things are observations, not criticisms.
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
The obese person may suffer more pain from multiple attempts at IV insertion, or suffer a bladder infection because sterile technique was not maintained in inserting a catheter.
The more experience that doctors have in more challenging situations, the more our skills improve. However, this is a process that takes time.
There are lots of challenging situations that we face in patients who aren’t obese as well, and we grow and learn from those too.
I guess that I feel a bit hurt by your attitude, actually. I understand that many overweight people suffer stigma and pain, but acknowledging the difficulties in provision of medical care is surely a step in the right direction?
My son’s surgery was just canceled today. He would have to be on his stomach and the ventilator they have available has difficulty adjusting for anyone over 200 pounds. They told us this as we arrived for check in.
Yes my son is big but he is also well over six feet tall with gigantic bones. Even if he were skinny skinny he would never make it to under 200 pounds.
This is the same hospital who got rid of a large number its employees last year because of financial difficulties. However, they have since redecorated and/or remodeled every spare square inch of the place.
Unfortunately it is the only hospital available in our area.
It reminds me of being in high school. A group of girls would hate another girl for no reason and then they’d sit together and all they’d do is talk about how ugly she is, how stupid she is, et cetera. And sooner or later, the girl would get beaten up or something.
The world in general doesn’t like fatties so they sit there and talk about them. Only, we can see it. We hear it. And we’re beaten up over and over again.
World: Grow up!
Jessica–
“There are no easy answers”? Really? It seems to me that the easy answer (and the correct answer) is to ACCOMMODATE THE ACTUAL PEOPLE WHO NEED TREATMENT. If doctors need training to treat fat people, train them to treat fat people in medical school and residency. Doesn’t seem that confusing to me.
No one is saying (including Bri) that there might not be additional complications in treating fat people. Looking at those potential complications is not, in itself, bad. It’s the attitude exhibited, the, “OMG! It’s such a horrible, horrible PROBLEM!” attitude that even goes so far as to suggest segregation.
Doctors find ways to treat tiny babies and elderly, frail people with collapsed veins…all kinds of people, in point of fact, ’cause, you know, that’s the JOB. Finding ways to treat fat people really shouldn’t be looked at ANY differently.
(And a related point, but one I obviously can’t prove: I think many–or at least some–of the “problems treating fat people” can be chalked up to confirmation bias. If you can’t find a vein in a thin person, well, maybe she’s dehydrated…a fat person, it’s clearly because of all that enrobing fat! And a 6′6″ 250lb man is as difficult to move as a 5′ 250lb woman, but only one of those people is going to be called a “problem”.)
“Now if all those things were needed to treat premmie babies, sports injuries or car accident victims, I am sure there would be no issue.”
Sorry but as a former nurse I can tell you that that’s simply not the case. Resources are often scarce and having the amount required to treat everybody at the efficiency that would actually improve quality of care is a HUGE issue for nursing staff.
It isn’t just an issue of the increase in overweight people, of course. And I don’t necessarily completely agree with the context in which the article was presented but there are some salient points made, which need to be addressed.
I spent an awful lot of time in nursing school going over issues of social awareness, across the board. This article, I felt, was quite rightly pointing out the fact that the hospital system has some serious flaws that impair the ability of medical staff to operate effectively within the bounds of the training and regulations they are forced to maintain…
OH&S protocols often give way in the face of difficulties that staff are untrained for. And most nurses were not trained to deal with seriously overweight patients as regularly as is now demanded of them. I don’t agree with blaming the patient but I know that changes need to be made to effectively deal with the increased size of a significant proportion of the patient population.
But Jessica – accomodations can easily be made. I went for an ultrasound the other day, and the technician asked me if I would mind holding my ‘pouchy stomach’ (she didn’t all it that, that’s what I call it) so she could use her scanner. I was happy to do so. There are always ways around problems, but too often there is an attitude of ‘let’s punish the fatty’ coming from the medical professional involved, and that’s just not on.
See, I do weightlifting. Not competitively or anything, but I’m hardly shabby at it. And even I have trouble lifting people. People are awkwardly shaped, and to lift someone out of bed it’s an odd angle.
If it’s just a matter of ehlping somebody move, if a nurse will get a back injury from helping a fat person, chances are they would have an injury from helping someone half that size.
“I understand that many overweight people suffer stigma and pain, but acknowledging the difficulties in provision of medical care is surely a step in the right direction?”
Jessica—-don’t be so quick to gloss over this statement. Believe me, there are countless examples of the medical community heaping burning hot coals of shame upon us fatties..which usually causes the PERSON seeking treatment to not receive ANY treatment. First Do No Harm is just one link depicting this very thing. http://fathealth.wordpress.com/
Yes, we should be discussing the difficulty hospitals and medical facilities are having in treating overweight/obese people. Most hospital equipment is adjustable, but often it is made for a specific size range of patient..similar to airline seats. Since human beings come in ALL shapes and sizes, AND medical care is of the utmost importance in the sustaining of life, isn’t it the responsibility of the hospital to be capable of treating the patient regardless of size instead of fueling the fat hate that is so trendy these days in order to justify NOT installing the necessary equipment and properly training medical staff?
The argument will be made, undoubtedly, that training and equipment will just cost the consumer more in regards to health care. That argument is always toted out to justify increased costs….for everything from insurance rates to the cost of milk. You don’t hear dairy farmers blaming the high cost of milk production on TEH FATTIES….but I’m sure they would jump on the bandwagon if they could make the connection.
I have terrible veins – I had terrible veins when I was average size, I had terrible veins when I was 6 years old. My girlfriend is also deathfat, and has awesome veins.
What I’m finding strange is that there seems to be a decrease in the training of doctors and other professionals to deal with unusual people, whether they be fat, tall, small or have a rare condition. I’ve had several surgeries for various conditions, and doctors over 60 (or nurses over 40) would talk about the slightly higher risk of anaesthesia then get on with it. Younger doctors and nurses had giant freak-outs and ran off to get colleagues to come and look at the fattie – and they can never get a vein. Are younger medical staff being trained to fit the system rather than deal with the patient? I should note that I mean this in a surgical context – otherwise I’ve had all kinds of reactions from doctors of all different ages.