03-29-2010, 02:23 PM
Quote: Doctors blame a British man's 20,000-calorie a day diet for causing him to balloon up to a whopping 980-pounds and leaving him in need of a life-saving operation.
Paul Mason, 48, needs a nearly $33,000 life-saving operation after a compulsive eating disorder left him "super-obese."
Mason scoffs three family-sized takeout meals a night and wolfs down roasts like snacks.
He has spent much of the past eight years in bed at his home in Ipswich in Suffolk, England.
His health care costs taxpayers an estimated $165,000 a year.
And now he needs drastic stomach surgery to curb his eating and keep him alive, which the country's National Health Services will have to foot the bill for.
Mason will travel in a 5-ton ambulance specially built for obese people at a cost of $148,000 to get the surgery.
Mason's girth may distinguish him as the world's fattest man. The previous world's fattest man, Manuel Uribe, once weighed an unbelievable 1,230 pounds, but has lost more than 500 pounds after following a specially designed, low-carb diet.
Click here to see pictures of Manuel Uribe.
"This man is very ill and this is life-saving surgery," a National Health Services Suffolk spokesman said of Mason. "The nature of his illness is psychological and the NHS has a duty to help him. He is in a very fragile state and needs help. We are exploring all options for transporting him from his home to hospital but we have now ruled out an airlift."
"The most important aspect of transporting him is preserving his dignity and looking after his safety. We have not had anything like this before," the spokesoman added.
Susie Squire, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "While it is important to get this man the medical attention he needs, cost-effective methods must be used."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,5686...latestnews