A 36-year-old Derry man, who weighs 37 stone, says he fears for his life, following what he says was the late cancellation of an operation intended to remove apron fat from his body.
Mr Patrick Broadbent, Clonmeen Drive, Strathfoyle, was due to have had the operation in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital last Thursday. Yesterday Mr Broadbent claimed that when he arrived for the surgery, he was informed that funding for the operation, due to have been carried out under the National Health Service, had been withdrawn.
Mr Broadbent, who said he suffers from Morbid Obesity, said he had been waiting three years for the NHS operation. "Originally it was to have taken place in 2000 but when I arrived in hospital for it, it was called off because I had a fungal infection in my stomach. I was called back to the hospital last year and was told that it would go ahead on June 19th of this year, but when I arrived last Thursday, I was simply told that due to a lack of funding, it could not go ahead."
Morbid Obesity is caused when a person is so heavy that the fat tissue load creates other medical conditions and a person is morbidly obese if their weight is 100 lbs in excess of ideal body weight. "It is hereditary in my family. My cousin died from the same disease in 1980. He was aged 24 and weighed 45 stone.
Other members of my family also suffer from the same illness. "I am 164 cms in height and was perfectly normal until 1990. Then I weighed 15 stone but had to take drugs after I started to suffer from epilepsy. Whatever happened, my weight increased from 15 stone to 37 stone over the last 13 years. I could not sleep in a bed. The only way I could sleep was by laying face down on a sofa, as if I was kneeling, saying prayers, and then fall asleep.
"One of the most humiliating things that happened to me was when my occupational therapist had to weigh me for a medical examination. The only way it could be done was to take me to the docks. There I got out of the car and the vehicle was weighed on the lorry scales. Then I got into the car and it was weighed again. That's how my weight was determined. I used to have a normally active life but now, with the exception of going to the local bingo hall, I'm basically housebound.
"The Housing Executive built an extension to my home, which included a downstairs bedroom, because I couldn't walk up the stairs," he said. If he paid for it privately the operation would "cost up to £10,000 and I just don't have that kind of money".
A spokesman for the Royal Victoria Hospital said the hospital was very limited in what it could say because of patient confidentiality. "We will continue to provide this person with treatment and he will continue to be a patient."