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No, there is not a documented epidemic of brutal murders of fat people for being fat, but there is a documented epidemic of failure to provide life-saving healthcare: Google will easily help you find stories of fat people who died while emergency crews laughed at their weight and appearance, of fat people who were told they should lose weight to fix problems actually caused by blood clots, cancer, internal injuries, infections, and myriad other problems that later killed them, because their doctors couldn’t see past their fat to properly treat them. Google will also easily help you find stories of medical equipment that cannot accommodate fat bodies, of anesthetists who accidentally kill fat people in surgery, of doctors who prescribe wrong doses for fat bodies, of drug trials that make no attempt to include fat patients. Google will also easily help you find stories of fat people who did not seek life-saving healthcare because they had been so viciously fat-shamed by doctors their whole lives that they had given up hope of finding sensitive and caring providers who would treat them.
Fat people die because of fat hatred ALL THE TIME.
”Melissa McEwan, in a comment on the Shakesville post “On Fat Hatred and Eliminationism” (via thisisthinprivilege)
Last year, I went to a spine center because I had a herniated disc in my back. I had been treated for it before, so I knew that was the issue. I was in horrible pain. The doctor walked in, looked at me, and then told me to lose weight and then I’d feel better. Luckily, a nurse saw me sobbing after he left and had a PA come in to see me. She ordered an immediate MRI, which showed I had one of the worst herniations my neurologist has ever seen. I ended up having last minute surgery so I wouldn’t permanently lose bowel control.
(via pencilcozy)
Adding my story here: For 12 years of my life I lived with a skin disease called Hidradenitis Suppurativa. It went undiagnosed for that long because doctors repeatedly told me it was chaffing and I should lose weight. Then last year when I went to have my wisdom teeth taken out, I was scheduled to have the surgery asleep. Well when my anesthesia didn’t work because the dose was too low for my weight, my surgeon laughed and told me that I was too fat to be asleep and did the surgery anyway. I was awake.
