hey fatty

[Dru]

woman sues doctor for telling her to lose weight

[Mr._Natural]

do you get cash for getting people to register or something?

[Dru]

i didn't have to register?

[Dru]

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A doctor's advice to a woman to lose weight backfired when she filed a complaint with the state saying the doctor was hurtful, not helpful.

 

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives.

 

"I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention. I told her, `You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.'"

 

He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended.

 

Her complaint, filed about a year ago, was initially investigated by a panel of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which recommended that Bennett be sent a confidential letter of concern.

 

The board rejected the suggestion in December and asked the attorney general's office to investigate.

 

Bennett rejected that office's proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

 

Bruce Friedman, chairman of the board of medicine, said he could not discuss specific complaints. Assistant Atty. Gen. Catherine Bernhard, who conducted the investigation, also would not comment, citing state law that complaints are confidential until the board takes disciplinary action.

 

"Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone," said board member Kevin Costin.

 

Another patient came to Bennett's defense.

 

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," Mindy Haney told WMUR-TV on Tuesday.

 

She said Bennett helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but acknowledged that initially she didn't want to listen.

 

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Dr. Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

 

[mec]

what is this world coming to

[mec]

or at least the US

[selkirk]

Well, eventually all of these wonderful health trends will progress to the point where they take serious effect prior to reproduction instead after reproduction. Then evolution can take care of itself.

 

It would be nice that if people were going to kill themselves slowly through their own stupidity that they'd at least have the common courtesy to do it before they have kids, so they don't inflict others with it.

 

Well either that or people will actually realize that they're killing themselves and do something about it , yep, that's likely.

[foraker]

As California goes, so goes the nation

[JoshK]

""I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Dr. Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

"

 

It is sad that a doctor is being "investigated" for doing exactly what his job entails. If the doctor told me that heavy drinking or smoking was killing me it is his right, no, duty, to tell me, even if I don't want to listen.

 

On a side note, I think something needs to be done about health care costs being passed on to the rest of us to treat obesity-related health problems. We all pay higher premiums (and in some cases our tax dollars go towards it) to treat people's health problems that they have caused themselves. The same goes with smoking. People need to take personal resonsibility for things they do to themselves that are intentionally harmful. Obviously there are exceptions for people who genuinely have medical reasons for their condition, but that is almost never the case and never the case for smokers.

 

-josh

[archenemy]

I could not agree with this more. I have had this conversation many times with folks. Somehow, it has become a stigma to talk about fat people like this. I don't quite get it...

[thelawgoddess]

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives.

saying it's bad for their health is one thing; saying it's bad for their love lives might be crossing the line.

[archenemy]

Yeah, I weigh in at 375 and I have lots of guys.

I just can't find them in the fat folds.

 

But seriously, you have a good point. Do you think it is improper for a physician to include a person's sex life as a part of their overall health picture?

[selkirk]

Since when has top-down management of addictions ever been successfull? How many people are really capable of changing something as profound and fundamental as their basic self-identities and behaviors without hitting absolute rock-bottom, first? So long as their addiction remains in any way manageable or palatable people will continue to feed it.

 

my prediction? Obesit is going to go the way of the cigarette. In another 20 or 30 years a final fundamental shift will occur away from it being seen as in any way acceptable, there will eventually be enough public support to be make it progressively harder and harder, and less and less desirable to be fat. Being forced to purchase extra seats on airplanes, and pay higher insurance costs, is only just the start.

 

On a different note, I wonder if anyone has looked at the relationship between the great depression and the current obesity epidemic? If you think about it, it's really the kids, and grandkids of those who lived through the depression when food was scarce who are having the weight issues. The whole, "clean your plate" ethic, combined with the new sedentary life-style is screwing people over, exacerbated by things like potato chips which are damn near crack is screwing things up.

[archenemy]

Wow. Is this an excerpt from your thesis?

[foraker]

Maybe I should have said, "As goes Canada...."

[selkirk]

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives.

saying it's bad for their health is one thing; saying it's bad for their love lives might be crossing the line.

 

There was some estimate I heard that for every 10-15(?) lbs a guy is overweight his effective lenth goes down by a 1/2 inch due to the increase thickness of the fat pad over his pubic bone. I'm sure there is probably some equivalent measure for you gals as well.

 

But of course if size doesn't matter to anyone

[archenemy]

my prediction? Obesit is going to go the way of the cigarette. In another 20 or 30 years a final fundamental shift will occur away from it being seen as in any way acceptable, there will eventually be enough public support to be make it progressively harder and harder, and less and less desirable to be fat. Being forced to purchase extra seats on airplanes, and pay higher insurance costs, is only just the start.

 

This is also my hope, but I see that we are actually headed in the opposite direction. Also, at the current rate, almost everyone will be obese soon. The already outnumber (as well as outweigh) us. They will have more power over policy and social mores than we will methinks.

[foraker]

Why would saying that your behavior might affect one of those 'important life factors' be considered 'crossing the line'? He's apprising someone of medical fact. If prudish and she's easily offended, that's too bad. All he needs is someone coming back to him saying 'But YOU NEVER TOLD ME!'

[selkirk]

Yep, but then they'll all fuckin die. Modern medicine is at best as stop gap solution that will slow down how fast they kill themselves. The best they can do with policy power is slow down the process.

 

There will be a backlash eventually. Rock bottom may very well come with the current generation of kids has kids. After they've watched their parents lose their limbs, eyesight, and lives due obesity and diabetes issues and see the same thing start to happen to themselves, and finally realize exactly what they're doing to their own kids.

[archenemy]

Yep, but then they'll all fuckin die. Modern medicine is at best as stop gap solution that will slow down how fast they kill themselves. The best they can do with policy power is slow down the process.

this is what allows them to live long enough to breed though.

[fenderfour]

shit, I thought this thread was about me

 

[selkirk]

good point, will certainly delay the process by a few years. Though cig's don't typically kill people till after they spawn either. People can be absurdly pig-headed when they want to be.

[mec]

well it is if you decide to sue your doctor

[Dru]

Yeah, I weigh in at 375 and I have lots of guys.

I just can't find them in the fat folds.

 

But seriously, you have a good point. Do you think it is improper for a physician to include a person's sex life as a part of their overall health picture?

 

God no, they might prescribe Viagra and then Minx's competing product sales would drop.

[Dru]

Maybe I should have said, "As goes Canada...."

 

fuck you, tubby

 

But Canada's adult obesity rate was significantly lower than the U.S. While 23 per cent of Canadian adults were obese in 2004, the rate was nearly 30 per cent south of the border.

 

only 8% of adults in Vancouver are obese, BTW. Lowest rate in the country.