UK Fat Patients Claim Discrimination

Let 'em.

This is responsible medicine:

"For two years, Frances Kinley-Manton says she lived with arthritis pain in her hips, a condition that kept her in a wheelchair. She wanted hip replacement surgery. But doctors at Britain's National Health Service said she was too fat for the operation.

Her doctor told the 210-pound woman to lose about 30 pounds before he would consider her for surgery."

This is a partial lie.

She was, "Unable to drop the weight through dieting..."

She could, but diet advice is wrong.

Diet advice is irresponsible medicine.

This is true:

"Doctors say obese people are at higher risk for surgical complications..."

So is this:

"Fat patients have a statistically higher risk for complications for almost any medical procedure. In some orthopedic surgeries, their risk can be five times higher than for a normal-weight person."

And this:

"There are also logistical problems: positioning the patient correctly on the operating table and putting the joint in exactly the right place is more difficult with an obese patient, Bhattacharyya said.

Besides the risk of complications, obese people usually need more time to recover, experts said, and might even wear out their new joints more quickly because of the greater stress from weight."

And who will be the first to sue when the result goes bad?

The fat patient.