Fat police?

-pixie · 22-02-2005, 09:01

Whats everyones opinions on this story thats front page ?

Fat police lock up Chris

Ordeal ... Chris was dragged
off in tears by authorities

FULL NEWS INDEX

By JACQUI THORNTON
Health Editor

SOBBING 31-stone Chris Leppard was dragged off to a mental hospital against his will by meddling social workers and police.

Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month because he cannot stop eating.

The authorities used powers normally used to detain mentally ill people who might harm themselves or others.

They locked him up despite the fact neither he nor his family wanted him to go. Last night Chris’s furious mother Anne said he has no mental problems and was winning his fight against the rare illness that compels him to eat.

TV report ... Chris on documentary last month

Chris’s case was condemned by opponents of a nanny state. They asked whether others with life-threatening addictions could be next.

Mum Anne, 49, told of the agonising moment the ambulance came to take Chris — without warning.

She said: “Four people turned up and after some questions, said they were taking him away. Chris was really upset, crying, saying he didn’t want to go and that he wasn’t mental.

“We didn’t know they were coming to take him. He is being punished for being ill. He has a physical problem. He was working well towards losing weight.

Support ... with mum Anne

“He asked social services to give him six months to prove he could lose weight. They didn't give him six days. I had stopped giving him money for food. For the first time in years we were getting somewhere. We had locked food cupboards, that was a big step.”

Chris, of Hastings, East Sussex, suffers from an incurable condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome. It means he can’t tell when his stomach is full and could eat so much that it will kill him.

East Sussex social services intervened after Chris appeared in a BBC1 documentary last month.

Anne said she asked for the six months grace to prove he could lose weight. He was already on a diet and exercising.

But the authorities shipped him off to a specialist eating disorder unit at the Eastbourne Clinic where he will be assessed for up to 28 days.

Shadow Health Minister Tim Loughton was outraged. He said: “It’s a taste of things to come if the Government’s draft Mental Health Act becomes law. It will subject people who are not strictly suffering from mental illness, to sectioning.”

Angry Libertarian Alliance spokesman Dr Sean Gabb said: “What on earth justifies the intervention of the police and compels him to have medical treatment?”

East Sussex County Council said “all proper procedures have been followed” — and such orders were “in the interests of that person’s health or safety or to protect other people”.

park381 · 22-02-2005, 09:28

What can you say! I think that there could have been more consultation

Quote:

Shadow Health Minister Tim Loughton was outraged. He said: “It’s a taste of things to come if the Government’s draft Mental Health Act becomes law. It will subject people who are not strictly suffering from mental illness, to sectioning.”

Angry Libertarian Alliance spokesman Dr Sean Gabb said: “What on earth justifies the intervention of the police and compels him to have medical treatment?”

The guy does have a major problem, but I don't think that action can be justified

WillowTheWhisp · 22-02-2005, 10:02

I saw the documentary and can really sympathise with the health problem that he has. I can sort of understand the reasoning behind the action that was taken "it's for the sake of his health", "it's for his own good" but I'm totally horrified that someone can be carted off by the police in this way as if he was a mad axe-man or something.

Acrylic-bob · 22-02-2005, 10:38

A mere taste of things to come. This is an entirely logical development of Political Correctness.

I think that it is pretty shocking to consider that this was taking place as Bush was prattling in Brussels yesterday about the promulgation of freedom. It would seem that "freedom" is now conditional not absolute.

Less · 22-02-2005, 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

I "it's for the sake of his health", "it's for his own good" but I'm totally horrified that someone can be carted off by the police in this way as if he was a mad axe-man or something.

Well, if he can be carted off for being over-weight I will probably be taken for being under-weight, I have been suffering depression for some time now trying to cope day by day sometimes up sometimes down, but one of the consequences of this is that sometimes I don't feel like eating. O.K. thats my choice but for how long? After all what I have is much more of a mental problem than he has though up to present I didn't consider it to be serious. At what point will the big they decide that I should be taken in & force fed for my own good? I think what they have done to him will have longer lasting affects on his mental state than anything else that could have been tried. Let him go free and encourage him in his efforts to slim if that is his desire.

One thing that is quite certain though if the BBC or any-one else sends a documentary team round to my house to do a programme about depression I won't let them in I'll go hide under the bed!

luke orourke 1988 · 22-02-2005, 12:38

i don't think its really fair. how can u get arrested or taken to a metal institution for eating. if he wants to eat let him. its his life

luke orourke 1988 · 22-02-2005, 12:39

i was suppose to say *mental institution soz.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke orourke 1988

i don't think its really fair. how can u get arrested or taken to a metal institution for eating. if he wants to eat let him. its his life

Tinkerbelle · 22-02-2005, 12:56

What a sad story, they should just leave the big guy alone and let him get on with. Nobody should dictate to him and if he thought he needed help he would ask for it himself eventually.

WillowTheWhisp · 22-02-2005, 12:57

They've actually let him out again now. I've just heard an update on the radio where they were talking to him.

Can't stop...........got a meeting.............will be back on this subject ASAP

chav1 · 22-02-2005, 13:03

instead of putting him in the nut house why dont they give him a gastric bypass so e wont put weight on

got to be cheaper than putting someone up in the nut house and paying for therapists and stuff

entwisi · 22-02-2005, 13:18

Sounds just like years ago when women were locked up for becoming pregnant out of marriage.

chav1 · 22-02-2005, 13:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

Sounds just like years ago when women were locked up for becoming pregnant out of marriage.

there was a woman in colderstones years ago for been deaf

she wasnt a mental case when she went in but after years of living there she eventualy went mad

dunno her name but definatly true

Tealeaf · 22-02-2005, 13:29

It appears that this gentleman suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder, a symptom of which, other than the inability to control appetite, is arrested development of the sexual organs.

Who was Prader, you may ask, and what was so special about his Willi?

janet · 22-02-2005, 14:11

I think it is disgusting how he has been treated, it's his problem, everyone else should butt out and mind there own business.

WillowTheWhisp · 22-02-2005, 15:11

I agree with much of what has already been said. The chap himself and his mother were interviewed on the radio at lunchtime and they both said that before he was carted away they had been working it out together and with a tremendous effort of will and by keeping food away from him he was fighting to control the urge to eat despite constantly feeling hungry. If he went out he didn't take any money so that he couldn't nip into shops to buy food. He was and is active and trying very hard to take control of his own life when suddenly he was whipped away like a criminal.

He had weighed 31 stone. He was put into a hospital with people who have mental illnesses despite the fact that Prader-Willi is not a mental illness but the most ludicrous part of the thing is that they didn't prevent him eating whilst he was there (about a week) and now he weights 33 stone!

They also interviewed a doctor who explained that there is no cure for P-W and the only thing that can be done is try to resist the feelings of needing to eat. He does this by making himself do other things. There was never any suggestion at any time of a gastric bypass but on first thinking of it that does sound like it could be a solution. Unless of course there could be danger to his heart undergoing a general anaesthetic when he is so big.

Anyway i'm glad to hear that he's home again now and hope that nobody else has to suffer such an indignity. Where could it all end? Who would they cart off next? Are any of us safe?