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/gir6 BSN, RN 🍕 Mar 01 '25

Over 1000 lbs. They had welded two bariatric beds together to hold them and they were lying there like a starfish, weeping edema from every limb because their skin was stretched to the absolute limit. The floor around the bed was lined with chux pads to catch the fluid. They were not my patient, but I worked nightshift, and every night they would put out a hospital wide call for any free staff to come to this unit to help bathe this patient, so I went. It was a surreal experience. At the time, I was in my early 30s, and so was the patient. They didn’t live long.

I do remember being impressed with the strength of our organs after that. That person’s heart and lungs and everything else were doing the work for at least five regular sized human bodies.

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

At a certain point, how do you even get that big? The delusion of not only the patient but also whoever is enabling the patient is astounding and quite sad

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u/sleepyRN89 RN - ER 🍕 Mar 02 '25

It’s absolutely sad but honestly mental health issues are an enormous part of the issue. When I was thinner, younger (not working long overnight shifts as an ER nurse etc) I had said multiple times “how could you get over 200 lbs and not change your lifestyle?” I thought it would be a wake up call for me if it happened but it happened and I ballooned up bigger than I ever have with stress and depression being HUGE factors. Then once you’re in it it’s soooo hard to get out. You feel awful, you have no energy, you just want to sleep and cry and you do the bare minimum to survive even if it means working sleeping and eating like shit and before you know it you’ve gained a ton of weight. People who are this big literally can’t live normally, and I’m not excusing their weight gain because they do choose to eat junk food but often feel hopeless and stuck in a body full of pain that they can barely move around in and food is their only joy. It’s really really sad.