Woman Weighing over 500 Pounds Found Molded to a Chair Hadn't moved in a Year

Tricia

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This story is gut-wrenching in its sadness. How can anyone forget a human being like this is beyond me.


From the Toledo Blade:

First responders on Thursday found an elderly Springfield Township woman surrounded by excrement and with her skin molded to a living room chair.

https://www.toledoblade.com/Police-...y-filth-hadnt-moved-from-chair-in-a-year.html

This article has a bit more detail. http://www.newser.com/story/238590/firefighters-rescue-ohio-woman-molded-to-chair.html

When they tried to lift Barbara Foster, 75, she "was so physically weak that bones in her body were breaking"

Can you imagine the smell of someone sitting in the same chair for a year? Foster didn't get up and go to the bathroom. No. She did everything right there in her chair.

People were delivering her food right? Couldn't they tell something was a little off by the pile of excrement surrounding her?

Breaks my heart. People matter. Who forgot this poor woman?

Tricia
 
My opinion is the volunteers did not want to be responsible in the clean up and chose to ignore until her health became worse.Some church volunteers are older and may not be able to do more than bring food or simply do not have the time.Whatever the reason these volunteers could have notified the church or county's health dept.
 
What a tragedy - compounded by the fact she is elderly and already vulnerable and in need of compassion and kindness. It seems the care provided was cursory and merely saw that she was fed.
The thought of anyone being left to rot like this breaks my heart. I hope it isn't too late and she can now live the remainder of her life with dignity and proper human interaction.
 
To maintain a weight of 500lbs someone was coming in that house bringing her food in addition to the person who finally called the ambulance.
 
I don't understand these logistics - something isn't right here. I agree with killarney rose - she didn't maintain that kind of weight eating what a church volunteer was bringing her - what, weekly? Did the volunteer put a week's worth of food in her lap, and a week's worth of water in her lap - so she didn't have to get out of that chair?

Volunteers at the church need to be trained in what to do if someone isn't getting out of their chair and are sitting in months worth of excrement.
 
I don't understand how this can happen if she had people bringing her food. Not in a pearl-clutching way but in a very literal, how can this happen? They didn't notify anyone? Say anything? Do anything about it themselves? They brought enough food to keep her over 500 pounds, but didn't do anything about the mess she was in? How can people live for years with that on their conscience? Once again, I literally mean I would make that a top priority, if for no other reason than I knew it was no longer "my problem" and was now in the hands of authorities with the power and ability to do something about it!

Another [neighbour] tells WTOL that Foster was a "hoarder" and that she wanted to call the Fire Department "for years" to report the house as a fire hazard. "I should have done it"
From http://www.newser.com/story/238590/firefighters-rescue-ohio-woman-molded-to-chair.html


Yeah no kidding (BBM).

A woman just died in my general area because the house she lived in was a hoarder house and a known fire hazard. House went up in flames, quickly, and nobody could rescue her in time.
 
I don't understand how this can happen if she had people bringing her food. Not in a pearl-clutching way but in a very literal, how can this happen? They didn't notify anyone? Say anything? Do anything about it themselves? They brought enough food to keep her over 500 pounds, but didn't do anything about the mess she was in? How can people live for years with that on their conscience? Once again, I literally mean I would make that a top priority, if for no other reason than I knew it was no longer "my problem" and was now in the hands of authorities with the power and ability to do something about it!


From http://www.newser.com/story/238590/firefighters-rescue-ohio-woman-molded-to-chair.html


Yeah no kidding (BBM).

A woman just died in my general area because the house she lived in was a hoarder house and a known fire hazard. House went up in flames, quickly, and nobody could rescue her in time.

We deal with a lot of hoarders(flipping homes) and when we are dealing with the actual hoarder themselves, it's heartbreaking. I think it's one of those diseases people slowly slip into, and no one knows how to approach it, and then one day they are found in their home deceased, the city is condemning their home or they finally realize it's time to let go. Very rarely is it the last one. I think people don't realize what a true mental health issue this is. It isn't your grandma who survived the depression and now saves all glass containers. Some of these people are young, and really struggling to face some demons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I, too, was perplexed by this story when I first saw it in the news. If she was stuck in the chair, someone would have to enter her home to give her the food. Or, was the chair close enough to a door or window so it could be passed to her without entering? I agree with all of your comments. I just do not understand how this went unnoticed (unreported) for an entire year. Awful....
 
I am seriously just trying to wrap my head around this. I just don't understand it, logistically, or whatever. If someone is defecating in a chair for months...where is it going? I mean...it would be underneath her. Is she sitting on a huge mountain of feces? How often did someone bring her food? Where was she getting water?
 
This just doesn't make sense. She must have had some degree of mobility & ability to get out of that chair for some period of time. Morbidly obese people who don't have good and regular skin care (washing & hygiene) would end up with open sores to their skin, compounded greatly if they were in the same position non-stop......they'd end up with horrible and severe skin ulcers (bed sores) that of course would become seriously infected from sitting in/direct contact with urine and feces.....life-threatening infection that would basically cause the infection to spread to their bloodstream (sepsis), they'd go into septic shock, their organs would shut down and they'd be dead pretty quickly. Not to mention other real complications such as blood clots from months of immobility, severe urinary tract infection due to sitting in 'filth' that would be come so severe it would lead to a life-threatening kidney infection then kidney failure, the list goes on. There's just no way the details of this sad story can be truly accurate. Then add to that, this so-called volunteer who let months go by supposedly seeing this woman sitting in the same chair, the **** piles getting higher, the smell in the home getting worse, there would have to be a million flies in the house.......he didn't think to call for help for her months sooner?
 
My God what a sad and bizarre story!

Although both articles linked previously say she apparently was in that chair since last July, so it would be 'only' 7 or 8 months, not a year, I agree with what LayzeeDayzee said above. Something just can't be right about this scenario, she should have succumbed to a number of health problems much earlier if she really had not moved at all for so long. But she did lose her leg, could that be from blood clots?

A man from Foster's church called 911 after he thought she was acting out of sorts. He had delivered food to Foster for 10 years and says he had become accustomed to the stench, which EMS workers said was overwhelming.

Just sad and bizarre.

Hope she recovers!
 
What a horrible story. The poor woman. BUT here's the dilemma faced by anyone trying to help...you can't force anyone to accept help. When we called 911 because an elderly friend with dementia had fallen and apparently broke his leg, I was shocked when the EMT asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital. Our friend said "no"!! But the EMT was able to eventually persuade him to go with them. He told me that legally they have to get permission. They know how to be persuasive, but some people are stubborn or not able to see that they need help. It's easy IMO to say people should have done something, but what?

I assume that some branch of government could get involved and take over on these cases but that's not easy to accomplish. I'm not excusing anyone who didn't step up, but we don't know whether they did try to help and got nowhere. I would hope they would have pursued the issue until they could get this woman help, but I expect some may feel that's intrusive and if they don't have power of attorney, no one will deal with them.

I'm one of the youngest residents in a retirement community and I see family and management struggle with this constantly. And I faced this with my parents and we're currently struggling with the friend mentioned earlier. We have a guy here with dementia who wanders. He never should have been allowed to live here to begin with, but today he decided to wander across a two lane thoroughfare and could have gotten killed. The nurse went to get him, but the nurse can't touch him, just hope he can coax him to come home. Needless to say, the powers that be jumped into action and are arranging for this fellow to be moving in a day or two to a locked memory care facility, something his longtime partner has been trying to arrange for 4 months. Outside caregivers are guarding him day and night...finally.

All this by way of saying there's much more to this woman's situation than meets the eye IMO.
 
How could anyone delivering her food not notice the smell? It would of been mind blowing
 
how bizarre....
Definitely with you guys and can't understand how she was sitting there for up to a year in her own feces and how they would have brought her food. Like if she didnt get up they would have to have brought it to her in the chair?
 
How could anyone delivering her food not notice the smell? It would of been mind blowing

The guy who delivered her food says he was used to it and didn't notice.

I call BS, olfactory fatigue is a thing but thats from prolonged exposure. Like 15 minutes + and you stay there in that environment. I think even if you delivered food daily you'd notice the smell unless you were spending hours there every single day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What a horrible story. The poor woman. BUT here's the dilemma faced by anyone trying to help...you can't force anyone to accept help. When we called 911 because an elderly friend with dementia had fallen and apparently broke his leg, I was shocked when the EMT asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital. Our friend said "no"!! But the EMT was able to eventually persuade him to go with them. He told me that legally they have to get permission. They know how to be persuasive, but some people are stubborn or not able to see that they need help. It's easy IMO to say people should have done something, but what?

Absolutely true, but none of the people that could have reported it to authorities even did that.
 
You could ask over and over how could this happen, but it is happening over and over every day. Until shows like hoarders and my 600lb life, I never knew the extent, and how these people actually lived. What I noticed as a common denominator on these shows, that mental illness is at the root of these cases. And there is often one ore more enablers who also seem to suffer some esteem issues at minimum. Most likely, this woman was a manipulator, sort of a bully, and demanding control. All the strong willed people who might have been able to intervene have been run off years ago. They have thrown up their hands and left. You don't get 500 lbs at 75 sitting alone in a house in a wheel chair without minions to do your bidding. I am not sure we can really blame anyone. However, if we could broaden the definition of a danger to themselves or others when we define when authorities can intervene with involuntary confinements, perhaps we can get them the help they need. Most of the time its the building inspector, fire marshall, or animal control who puts an end to these cases...but that is after years of neglect. I am sure the police had been there, but could do nothing unless the woman talks of suicide or threatens them. Most likely the conversations always end with I will clean this up and see my doctor. thanks for stopping by.
 
To maintain a weight of 500lbs someone was coming in that house bringing her food in addition to the person who finally called the ambulance.

EXACTLY! How can you maintain such a high weight without moving at all? To maintain that weight she would have to be eating THOUSANDS of calories a day. If she isn't moving around, who is bringing her all that food?!
 

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