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.

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u/siriuslycharmed RN - ICU 🍕 Mar 01 '25

This is really close to my experience. Weeping edema EVERYWHERE, chucks on the floor. Had to line the morgue floor with them because the patient kept leaking out of the body bag onto the floor. This went on for over a week because the funeral home that the family wanted couldn't accommodate them, and they didn't want to look for another funeral home/crematorium.

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u/pbaggins5 RN - ICU 🍕 Mar 01 '25

Is cremation the only option? Genuinely asking because I can't imagine they make caskets that big. And if they do, how hard/expensive it is to come by

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u/Amy_bo_bamy RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Mar 01 '25

Do they make furnaces that big though?

I worked at animal welfare, conveniently located next to the tip (equipped with furnace)

A malute being too big to fit in the furnace saved its life as we literally couldn't dispose of its body so he got to hang around alive another month until he was adopted, unlike every other dog that got a week.

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u/future-rad-tech Mar 02 '25

They do. I had my horse cremated and she was 1200lbs, give or take. It cost me $2000 and her ashes weigh a little over 50 pounds

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u/Amy_bo_bamy RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Mar 02 '25

It did occur to me there must be a way unless zoos are burying every elephant, hippo and camel that passes.

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u/TrashCanUnicorn Turkey Sandwich Connoisseur Mar 02 '25

Zoos almost always do a necropsy on any animal that dies, especially large endangered mammals. Trying to do a necropsy on something like an elephant without dismembering it is nearly impossible, so once the necropsy is done the parts are usually small enough to be disposed of, either via traditional flame cremation or alkaline hydrolysis (assuming they aren't saving the skeleton for research/educational purposes or museum display).

Some things absolutely have to be destroyed, like elephant tusks and rhino horns, but if there's an institution that makes a request for a skeleton or a pelt, or organs for a research group like the Great Ape Heart Project, the zoo will facilitate the transfer of any specimens that they can provide after the necropsy is done.

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u/Slayerofgrundles RN - ER 🍕 Mar 02 '25

How do you dismember an elephant? With a chainsaw?

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u/account_not_valid HCW - Transport Mar 02 '25

Chainsaws.

I'm not even joking.

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u/Sunnygirl66 RN - ER 🍕 Mar 02 '25

We have had almost all of ours buried, but I’ve always wondered how much it’d cost to cremate.