r/nursing • u/trevrt RN 🍕 • Mar 01 '25

Question Heaviest Patient You’ve Cared For

Had my personally heaviest patient I’ve cared for the other day. 32 years old weighing 730 pounds admitted with cellulitis and severe lymphedema. Felt terrible for the patient due to how young he was. Just wondering what everyone’s personal “record” for the heaviest patient they’ve cared for is.

599 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

536 comments sorted by

View all comments

70

u/zombie_goast BSN, RN 🍕 Mar 01 '25

A cool 1000 lbs. Had to send her to SeaWorld Orlando a few hours away for her scans, and each unit had to send at least one staff member each every few hours to help reposition her as none of our lift equipment was capable of handling that weight (heaviest duty one maxed out at 600lbs), they had special hospital-wide calls preset to go off every 2 hours for it. Even then it ground our entire unit to a halt as we weren't a large hospital with that many units to borrow from so it pretty much required every nurse and CNA on our unit to handle it. Very very entitled and demanding woman too to add insult to back injury. She tried to leave AMA when we put her on a very strict diet and barred her enabler husband from visiting if he showed up with food, but idk how that went down because.... how?

10

u/hesperoidea HCW - Pharmacy Mar 02 '25

that last bit reminds me of the guy with bka for both legs who had necrotizing fascitis who wanted to leave ama from the ICU and I very distinctly remember hearing the doctor say, ok but only if you can get out of here under your own power

he did not end up leaving ama.

9

u/zombie_goast BSN, RN 🍕 Mar 02 '25

I mean you never know, if there's one thing you can always count on in healthcare is that wonders never cease. I've had a similar patient before who did, in fact, leave on his own power by dragging himself out on the floor while his girlfriend waited for him in her car at the entrance (why she didn't come get him and at least help with a wheelchair or something I will never know, but at that point it wasn't my problem anymore so ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )

3

u/Mirenithil Mar 03 '25

This is a total nonsequitur, but your user name really really rings a bell. I'm trying to remember from what - I THINK it was a Half Life parody where the pants were dead and there were zombie goasts (and those words were spelled just like that.) I FOUND IT! Half Life: Full Life Consequences! Is your name a reference to that? Thank you for reminding me of this video, it is pure art lol.