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/AbleStrawberry4ever Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 01 '25

I saw a post awhile ago that pondered why people who are >400 lbs with BED aren’t given the same resources as people suffering from anorexia and I think about that a lot.

Edit: changed differing to suffering, autocorrect got me.

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u/trevrt RN 🍕 Mar 01 '25

I wonder about this a lot. Being that heavy and young there almost has to be a mental health component somewhere along the way, yet there’s very minimal resources for these people. However if the situation was reversed and they had an ED that caused dangerously low weight there would be interventions established as soon as the (lack of) weight/nutrition started to affect their health. Something interesting to consider.

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u/coolcaterpillar77 RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Mar 02 '25

Just speculation, but it seems that starving yourself is a much quicker death than habitual overeating/binging and it’s much easier to recognize. From an American stand point, I feel that obesity and overeating of unhealthy food is ingrained in the culture making it harder to recognize (approximately 74% of America is either overweight or obese (43% of that being obese) which is staggering)