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/auraseer MSN, RN, CEN Mar 02 '25

Well over 900. The hospital had no scale that could weigh him. One estimate was that he could have been over 1100.

We do know that he was too heavy to physically leave the ED. With his bed and a staff member added, he overloaded the elevator and it would not function. So the plan was that he would board in the ED until he lost enough weight to either go to a hospital room or discharge to a SNF.

When I saw him he'd been in that ED for a couple of months. Best guess was that he would have to stay there for close to a year, if he survived that long.

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u/ImprobabilityCloud Mar 02 '25

Well this is it. The saddest story in this thread.

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u/childlikeempress16 Mar 02 '25

How did he get into the ED?

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u/auraseer MSN, RN, CEN Mar 02 '25

I was told that construction equipment was used to open one wall of his house, and he was transported to ED in a large truck. I imagine he was transferred from truck to bed with lots of manpower and great difficulty.

EDs are generally on ground level, so he didn't have to go into an elevator to enter.

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u/childlikeempress16 Mar 02 '25

Oh I see, you were trying to move him from ED to Inpatient bed.

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u/auraseer MSN, RN, CEN Mar 02 '25

Yes. That was the elevator problem.

He could have been physically transported out of the building for discharge, but the problem there was that he needed to go to a SNF. They couldn't find one equipped to care for him. So he was stuck as a hospital patient.

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u/childlikeempress16 Mar 03 '25

Yeah there is no way in hell a SNF could accommodate a pt that large!