60 Stone and House-Trapped features morbidly obese people so unhealthy two of them have died
KEITH Martin puffs and pants as he rolls his 60-stone body over to be cleaned by his nurses, who wipe the pus away from his bed sores and leaking skin rolls.
The shocking footage from 2013 is used in the opening scene of tonight’s new Channel 5 programme, 60 Stone and House Trapped, which follows three morbidly obese Brits – Keith, Denise and Sandra – who were so overweight they could not leave their own homes.
Sadly, Keith and Denise have both died since filming finished – highlighting just how dangerous obesity can be.
Keith – who was eating 20,000 calories a day by gorging on fry-ups, pizzas and Big Macs – died from pneumonia after having 75 per cent of his stomach removed.
It’s not known how many supersized Brits are trapped in their own homes in the UK – but it’s estimated that caring for them costs the NHS £16m a year in extra care.
In tonight’s show, carers try to help all three patients get back on their feet, in scenes filmed before Keith and Denise’s deaths.
‘I haven’t been able to walk for two years but I’m constantly hungry’
Keith, aged 41 at the time of filming, was just 16 when his mum died and he began to comfort eat.
“I just didn’t care,” he explains in the footage, “I now weigh 58 stone.”
He reveals that at the time of filming, he hadn’t left his north London home in ten years.
The only visitors he had were from the occasional doctor and two carers who pop by daily to clean him.
They are filmed applying cream over his entire body to stop him getting painful pressure sores from spending 24 hours a day in bed.
If they hadn’t, the simple act of twisting or turning could have split his skin.
He is shown in the footage playing the PlayStation and admits he is “constantly hungry.”
“It feels like the world’s going past and I’ve been left behind,” he tells the camera. “Going out now would be like going to a different country. It’s scary.”
Later in the programme, we see seven paramedics forced to carry him on a heavy duty sheet to get him into hospital for an appointment.
Keith is seen in agony as they try to manoeuvre his supersized body through a door frame which is smaller than him.
“It’s really hard,” he admits in the footage. “Bits of my body get caught between the door frames and the stretcher.
“Sometimes it’s taken nine people to move me. I am just surrounded by bodies and I want to scream and run away.
“But if I could do that I wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
‘I pay two people £1,300 a month to wash me everywhere’
It’s a similar story for Denise, who a the time of filming was receiving £1,300 a month from the NHS to employ two carers to wash her body and sit with her for company.
“They wash so much of me – intimate parts – that you have to just get over the embarrassment and get on with it really,” she tells the camera.
The mum-of-three from Tamworth, West Midlands was 40 stone and had been trapped in the home she shared with husband Eddie for seven years.
The former nurse’s health troubles began when she hurt her back at work, meaning she was forced to remain bed-bound while her spine crumbled, leading to weight gain.
She was also diagnosed with chronic lymphoedema – a condition characterised by tissue swelling and fluid and toxin retention – which has caused her to quickly gain weight, and had seen her emotional health suffer too.
“I got really depressed because I felt like everything was being taken away from me,” she reveals in the footage. “I just felt like I wasn’t able to be a wife and mother.”
During the documentary, Denise’s husband attempts to help her move by getting her a specially adapted wheelchair.
But despite being hoisted out of bed, her carers cannot get her into it comfortably.
We see the motor in the hoist begin to struggle under her weight and she’s forced to removed back to bed.
“I could sit here and feel sorry for myself and cry,” she admits to the camera. “And sometimes I do.”
“I get it out my system and then try and get back on track again.”
Denise sadly died not long after filming.
”My rolls of skin leak, causing painful burns’
Sandra – the only surviving patient in the show – explains that it’s been four years since she left her house and lived an independent life with a full-time job.
The mum, 56, saw her body swell from a petite size 10 to more than 35 stone, and has since been largely confined to her bedroom at home in Essex.
She is cared for daily by her daughter Lorraine – who has put her own life on hold to wash her and tend to every need – and we see her in the process of getting a special new £11,500 bed weighing 270kg to support her growing frame.
Like Denise, Sandra has lymphoedema – but she does her best to walk between rooms when she can.
But being mostly bed bound has left her with a number of unpleasant side-effects.
The rolls of fat on her legs will travel down to her ankles if she stands up for too long, and if she bashes her body against something she risks deep bruises that turn into ulcers.
Between the folds in her skin, lymph fluid often leaks out, causing painful burns.
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Her lack of inactivity also means she has experienced severe muscle wastage – but she hopes her new bed, which will help her stand up without getting injured, will help build it up again.
“It’s ridiculous, I know. You shouldn’t have to hinge your life on a bed, but that’s how my life is going to be,” she says. “I know I’ll never be able to leave the house again, I know that, but at least I’ll be able to wander around the bottom of the house.”
60 Stone & House Trapped: Big Body Squad, tonight at 10pm on Channel 5.