Paul Mason Loses 630 Pounds, Needs Plastic Surgery
January 28, 2013Paul Mason Loses 630 Pounds, Needs Plastic Surgery
Once known as the world's fattest man, 51-year-old Paul Mason has happily shed that unwanted title. Three years ago, Mason underwent weight loss surgery and has lost an incredible 630 pounds.
The formerly bedridden Ipswich, England man, who tipped the scales at a startling 980 pounds before his gastric bypass, says that childhood bullying, a broken relationship, and the death of his father were contributing factors to his compulsive eating and morbid obesity. Mason was consuming over 20,000 calories a day which was 10 times more than what he should have been.
Mason, who recently visited a gym for the first time, is unfortunately still mostly confined to a wheelchair due to approximately 100 pounds of excess skin that no amount of exercise can take care of. It is too painful for him to walk and the weight of his excess skin causes his skin to painfully split. The excess skin also allows for rashes and infections in the folds of the skin and is damaging to his joints.
Still feeling trapped in his own body, this time by the extra skin, Mason wants and needs plastic surgery to remove the folds of skin that are limiting his quality of life. But Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which paid for the gastric bypass, says that Mason will have to maintain a stabilized weight for two years before he can have the surgeries and there is a one to two year wait for the procedures he needs.
"I feel like I've been left high and dry." says Mason who has been pleading his case to NHS to no avail.
Mason rightfully feels that the removal of the excess skin will help him to start living a more active life and therefore lose even more weight. Just a few years ago, he was waiting to die in his bed. Today, he is waiting to live life to its fullest. He wants to help others with eating disorders, to learn to drive, travel the world, and one day to get married.
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