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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Obese Ohio Man Found Fused to Chair
2011-03-31
[An Nahar] An obese Ohio man had to be cut from a chair he had been sitting in for two years after his body became fused to it, local media reported.
Just for your information, I do not live in Ohio...
Police told WTRF news that the man's skin had become fused to the seat of the chair, which was covered in urine, feces and maggots.
Two words: "E-e-e-e-wwww! Ralf!"
The man's girlfriend brought him food for two years as he sat in his own waste in the filthy apartment they shared with another man, police said.
He had a girlfriend? What'd they do for fun? Squish butt maggots?
They called for help on Sunday morning when he was unresponsive and had to cut a hole in the house to get him out of the building so they could get him to the hospital.
"Higgins! We need the Sawzall of Life!"
"Right, Chief!"

The smell was unbearable and one officer told the station that he threw away his uniform after it was sullied while cutting the man out of the chair.
I was on a call something like that in my younger days: one of those things where I was glad I wasn't naked, I'da had to cut off my leg.
The man was taken to the hospital for treatment.
...rather than to the city dump...
"The living room where the man lived in his chair was very filthy, very deplorable. It's unbelievable that somebody lives in conditions like that," said Jim Chase, a city code enforcer in Bellaire, Ohio.
It's convenient that most city and county ambulance services are part of fire companies. That way they can just unlimber a fire hose to clean up after one of these transports...
"I instructed the landlord this morning and the two people, the tenants at the house, they had to get it cleaned, there's no way they can live in something like that, and so they are working on it," he told WTRF Monday.
Posted by:Fred

#7  TU nailed it. Geraniums are much prettier and easier to grow. Unfortunately they don't produce Social Security Disability checks. Next please, NEXT!
Posted by: Besoeker   2011-03-31 12:42  

#6  Fred brings up an era past when the church of voluntary membership took care of one another, but now multiculturalism accepts all lifestyles as valid and believes we should not impose our beliefs on one another, but readily accepts and expects egalitarian outcomes when worshipping at the altar of government bureaucracy. Just read another case of a young fetal alcohol syndrome victim was tortured to death and no one checked on her--in Utah where the chances are extremely high your neighbors are church-going Mormons! Be grateful if you have family and friends that care but sometimes there simply isn't anything we can do for those who don't want to be helped unless it is unconditionally, even excluding God's help.
Posted by: Glinetch Bucket9611   2011-03-31 12:38  

#5  Chances are, "girlfriend" and "roomate" took just enough care of this guy to keep his guvmint/disability/welfare check coming in so they could add it to their pile. They only called for help when it looked like their gravy train was leaving the station.
Coming up next, the investigation, which will find that "the system" failed. In reality, the system worked just the way it was supposed to.
Posted by: tu3031   2011-03-31 11:32  

#4  I pointed this out to Gloria, forgetting for the moment that she has no tolerance for the gross. I stand by my snark, but she's right: there's a lot more to it, and it's a serious lot.

It's illustrative of the difference between a society that strives for "equality of outcome" by creating bureaucratic organizations where people sit for extended periods in plastic chairs waiting for their names to be called and their cases processed and a society that actually cares -- government cheese versus the parish priest or the rabbi or the minister stopping by to see how you are, fill in a form versus remembering your name. (See no mo uro's excellent comments here, which should have been an opinion piece in itself...)

The guy sat in the chair for two years, excreting regularly, bathing not at all, consuming enough food to keep him large enough to be stuck, and nobody with the least bit of sense seemingly noticed.

What kind of society lets that happen?

Why do we employ an army of social workers and social welfare bureaucrats who allow little children to be starved and beaten and not taken away from the parents who abuse them? Who allow the aged and the infirm, the helpless and the incompetent, to "fall through the cracks" with soul numbing regularity?

And every time somebody falls through the cracks there's some dimwit on the teevee intoning that "we have to learn from this incident," while somehow we never seem to learn. It always happens again and everybody's just so surprised...

The guy lived (and according to crosspatch's comment died) in disgusting circumstances. Every policeman and firefighter and EMT knows that a percentage of the population lives in conditions that are just as disgusting. But the cops, firefighters, and EMTs aren't the guys who are responsible for getting them out of those conditions -- they're the guys who're responsible for cleaning up the mess.

"Outcome egalitarianism" is in its death throes, though I suspect it will outlive me by a year or two. It would probably be a good idea for some smart fellow (or lady) somewhere to start thinking about what kind of society would avoid its now ever so obvious pitfalls and still take care of big fat guys stuck in chairs for a couple of years, or the crazy old lady with 43 cats, or the guy who stalks up and down the city sidewalks screaming at non-existent adversaries. The alternative is dark ages.

When I was a little kid in the 50s the parish priest would stop by and see how we were doing. When times were hard, and they usually were, there was a turkey for Thanksgiving and another at Christmas, courtesy of the church. There were toys and often clothes for the kids courtesy of the Salvation Army.

It's too bad you can't go home again.
Posted by: Fred   2011-03-31 10:06  

#3  The man has since died.
Posted by: crosspatch   2011-03-31 02:22  

#2  See page 1191, Section C, Para 4. "Chairfusing" while waivorable for certain union members, is covered under Obamacare.
Posted by: Besoeker   2011-03-31 01:29  

#1  Ugh. That's even worse than the cases of 'status derelictus' I used to care for. You know, the ones whose back-pocket flask of whiskey is frozen solid and who bite off the rectal thermometer even when used correctly.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2011-03-31 00:54  

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