Half-ton man loses 573 pounds in one year


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VALENTINE, Neb - He still is a mound of a man, but his blue eyes widen with delight as he presses his chest with his fingertips, smiles mischievously and makes the grand announcement: He can FEEL his ribs.

To Patrick Deuel, this small moment is huge. Headline huge.

One year ago, Deuel weighed 1,072 pounds. He was so enormous that his bedroom wall had to be cut out to extract him from his home. Then, he was rushed to a South Dakota hospital in an ambulance with extra-wide doors and a ramp-and-winch system that had to be dispatched from Denver.

One man. More than a half-ton. Mind-boggling.

So, too, were the grim realities of Deuel?s life. He hadn?t left his bedroom in seven months. He?d barely been outside in seven years. He couldn?t sit up. He couldn?t roll over by himself. He had heart trouble and diabetes and needed oxygen.

Patrick Deuel was dying. A photo taken last June shows a pneumatic-like figure sprawled helplessly on his stomach looking like an inflated balloon.

Now 12 months after being hospitalized for gastric bypass surgery, Deuel sits on a love seat that is propped up on cement blocks. He still looks like a plus-sized Buddha. But he is less than half the man he used to be and that, his doctor says, is amazing progress.

The patient concurs.

?I?m used to looking in the mirror and seeing the Michelin man,? he says. ?All of a sudden ... I look a little more like a human being and I say, ?Ooooh, my God, where did HE come from???

Deuel does a quick inventory of his shrinking, yet still massive body: He touches his ribs. He stretches his fingers like fans to see bones and tendons.

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good to hear he's finally getting a hold on his problem but that should have been looked into many years ago. I dont know how you could let your self get like that in the first place.

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Maybe he could swim in his own fats to reduce weight.

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You know Im not Obese / Fat myself but come on to grips, is there any reason you feel the need to slag him further?

Grow up. Dont rip on folk because they are suffering, hell if you were ill with cancer I wouldnt come round and call you "Canca Boy" and start laffing!

I dont know if you see my point but its like any other affliction upon a person, be it spots, mental health, physical health, etc instead of folk standing about making these folk feel be-littled , why not actually try to help them (lets face it you dont know what could happen and maybe one day you could end up quite large or something, maybe a scar.. i dunno).

Im sorry but that just ticked me off.

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You know Im not Obese / Fat myself but come on to grips, is there any reason you feel the need to slag him further?

Grow up. Dont rip on folk because they are suffering, hell if you were ill with cancer I wouldnt come round and call you "Canca Boy" and start laffing!

I dont know if you see my point but its like any other affliction upon a person, be it spots,  mental health, physical health, etc instead of folk standing about making these folk feel be-littled , why not actually try to help them (lets face it you dont know what could happen and maybe one day you could end up quite large or something, maybe a scar.. i dunno).

Im sorry but that just ticked me off.

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I totally agree there mate, well said.

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You know Im not Obese / Fat myself but come on to grips, is there any reason you feel the need to slag him further?

Grow up. Dont rip on folk because they are suffering, hell if you were ill with cancer I wouldnt come round and call you "Canca Boy" and start laffing!

I dont know if you see my point but its like any other affliction upon a person, be it spots,  mental health, physical health, etc instead of folk standing about making these folk feel be-littled , why not actually try to help them (lets face it you dont know what could happen and maybe one day you could end up quite large or something, maybe a scar.. i dunno).

Im sorry but that just ticked me off.

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Thank you for that post Colicab. As someone who had a gastric bypass its comments like IK .:. 47's that really bug me to.

I didn't quite lose as much as this man did, I lost around 180 or so pounds. But I know how he feels, it feels great to do it finally after so many years being in a prison of your own body.

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The difference is that being obese, in nearly all circumstances, is self-induced - that is why people mock it, unlike diseases such as cancer. I have no sympathy for overweight people [excluding extremely rare medical conditions], as I know how hard it can be to keep my body in shape. Having said that, I do not condone insulting fat people as that is something you should keep to yourself; it is just common decency.

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not all cirucmstances, cause people can have problems with their thyroid gland.

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That's why he mentioned the exception for rare medical condition. Try reading his whole post?

That is a lot of wait :o

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That's why he mentioned the exception for rare medical condition. Try reading his whole post?

That is a lot of wait  :o

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actually it's a lot of weight

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can you imagine what it must be like for this guy? I mean to finally re-discover your body and feel so different. He can actually get out of his house now. Hopefully he will continue to lose the weight. Good luck man! :)

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wow that's alot of weight lost, I wonder if there are any medical risks on loosing so much weight in a short period of time ( Although 12months is not that short).

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wow that's alot of weight lost, I wonder if there are any medical risks on loosing so much weight in a short period of time ( Although 12months is not that short).

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In the position he was, I'm pretty sure there wasn't, being as 1 year is quite a long time.

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can you imagine what it must be like for this guy?  I mean to finally re-discover your body and feel so different.  He can actually get out of his house now.  Hopefully he will continue to lose the weight.  Good luck man! :)

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Losing it is actually the easy part. Keeping it off is the true challenge.

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Losing it is actually the easy part. Keeping it off is the true challenge.

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Indeed, keeping it off is the hard part.

how did he get food?

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Order in, have people bring it, etc.

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So what happens to all that excess skin he has now? I still can't imagine how people are able to get that big.

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Oh its there trust me. He will have to live with it, or have it surgically removed (which would mean he would lose another 25-35 lbs probably)

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