I seem to recall this headline several years ago.
If you were in the Bay area at this time, was this story for real?
How does a 13-year-old get to be 700 pounds (and, IIRC, she was bed-ridden)?
That is, if she’s 700 pounds and bed-ridden, someone must still be over-feeding her.
Fess up. You didn’t just read the headline. You went ahead and bought the paper at the checkout counter.
Actually the story is quite true, despite the “Weekly World News” vibe to it.
Here in the bay area (I think it was in Emeryville, a suburb of San Francisco) a thirteen year old girl died of heart disease brought about from her 600+ weight.
The local news seemed more interested in the city procecuter indicting the mother for abuse or gross neglagence or something than the overweight girl herself. The girl supposedly had bedsores and was found in a housefull of fast food detrius.
I seem to recall that after the news exausted the freak value of the story the case was quietly plea-bargained away behind closed doors.
For a while the crime scene photos were the hot item among the University servers (soon supplanted by the Tupac Shakur autopsy photo and that bug-eyed baby we’ve all seen).
Inky
Oh, good. When I first read the title of the OP, I thought we were going to start talking about this again.
What a relief.
DHR
Inky:
“Bug-eyed baby???”
Details, please.
I don’t remember the case, but I would bet money the girl was suffering from a particular form of fragile X syndrome. Evidently, this form of the disorder, the name of which I can’t remember, is charecterized by mildly retarded children who ALWAYS feel as if they are starving. They eat constantly and often die at a very young age as a result. There is no treatment, as far as I know, except to deny the child food, knowing that they are suffering as if they hadn’t eaten in days. It is a tragic thing, but not the result of gluttony.
Thanx a lot, dog. As for the unfortunate girl the tragedy could have been worse considering where it happened. At least she died in bed. if she had fallen and hit the ground residents of the entire Bay Area would have gone running out into the street and standinig in door ways.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
No prob, mr. john. When that picture was originally posted in MPSIMS by FatalImage, posters who had seen already seen the picture seemed to agree that it was a fake. If there were a consensus that it was really a picture of a dead person, I wouldn’t have posted it here.
DHR
Well Mjollnir, there was this site (I think it was called “Grotesque.com” or something along those lines) that has a bunch of photos of babies with birth defects. one of them had a veiny head and bulging eyes reminicent of the monsters from the film “Invasion of the saucer men” (if you’ve ever seen that gem).
For months after that photo started circulating it could be seen on band posters all over the Height.
Inky:
Yep, quite familiar with that classic.
The baby you described also seems to resemble the little tyke in “It’s Alive.”
So, I forget, what was the blob made of, supposedly? I suppose I could read it all, but someone summarize the findings…
The girl and her mother lived in El Cerrito, not Emeryville.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/srch_archive/srch-list.cgi?p=chron&cs=&es=&y=1997&fm=01&fd=01&tm=12&td=31&b=&h=&q=corrigan+AND+%22El+Cerrito%22&t=sorted_search.tmpl&a=search&d=thedat e&wdb=%2Fsfgate%2Fwais%2F&submit.button.x=39&submit.button.y=17
If this. . .unh. . .a bit oversize and subject-to-change cgi URL doesn’t work, stick ’ corrigan AND “El Cerrito” ’ into
“Keywords” on the page at:
http://www.sfgate.com/wais/search/arch-pro.shtml
and set the year to ‘1997’.
Ray
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/12/30/MN19660.DTL
Okay, okay, so I was one district off.
1997? I’m happy when I manage to remember what day they pick up the garbage anymore…
Inky
Incidently, Manda Jo sure pegged the genetic disorder thing right off. “Prader-Willi syndrome”.
Inkz
I remember the case of the 13-year-old. Very sad, she basically ate herself to death.
But if you want gross pictures, I know where to find them, www.rotten.com . Be warned: it’s VERY graphic.
