Subaqua Sternal Rubs

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — At St. Luke's Hospital, each of the 14 new neurology intensive care rooms has a feature that's becoming standard in the health care industry: a patient lift system that can handle 600 pounds.

Hospital officials had the equipment installed out of safety concerns — it can take five or six nurses to lift extremely overweight patients, said Jennifer Ball, a patient care director with St. Luke's.

"I think we're seeing more (obese patients) and people are more conscientious about it," she said.

Severely overweight people tend to have more health problems and they often can't fit in standard beds or wheelchairs built for 300-pound people. The $3 billion market for hospital beds, wheelchairs and other equipment designed for plus-size patients is rapidly growing as more Americans become obese.

The government estimates about two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese; 31 percent fall into the obese category.

Kinetic Concepts Inc. of San Antonio said its line of specialty hospital beds and mattresses, including those for obese patients, took in $282 million last year, a 6 percent increase from the year before.

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However, it doesn't help it EMS can't get them out of the house. For the second time this month, a story about a 600-lb gentleman who called 911 due to difficulty breathing, and ended up dying because it took 2-hours to get him out of his bedroom. (Interesting side note, story is out of CT, but they show a MAST Ambulance, which is out of Kansas City, KS.) Firefighters ended up cutting out the bedroom window and lowering him down a ladder on his front door as a makeshift, as the standard ambulance stretcher wouldn't hold him. As sad as this is, it points to a growing problem is this country, that is just growing out of control. Medical services are trying to cope, but obviously ther is still work to be done. They are making ambulances now that have cranes on the back of them to lift obese patients in, as well as "oversize" stretchers. However, few EMS agencies have them. If the obesity epidemic continues, what's next? Are we going to start taking patients to the hospital in the back of dump trucks? How about a few less Big Mac's? And before you go off on me that it's all hereditary, last summer I was called to the home of a 600+ lb gentleman in cardiac arrest, with not less than 20 Burger King bags strewn on the floor all around him. What does that tell you?

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