World’s fattest man dies

London, December 7
A 444.5-kg British man, believed to be the fattest in the world, has died from pneumonia following a lengthy battle with his weight.

The 44-year-old Keith Martin’s death happened just eight months after he had undergone a successful gastric sleeve surgery which removed three-quarters of his stomach, The Telegraph reported yesterday.

Martin’s weight was 70 stone (444.521 Kg) at his heaviest.

If he had lived he would have lost hundreds of pounds and regained his ability to walk and live a normal life, according to head surgeon Kesava Mannur who operated Martin at Homerton Hospital last year.

Mannur supported new NHS guidelines which encourage doctors to suggest weight-loss surgery for anyone with a BMI higher than 30 and type 2 diabetes.

“The government needs to make unhealthy fast food more expensive. Otherwise we’ll continue to see more and more people like Keith. In the past few years I have treated several people who weighed between 45 to 60 stone”, the doctor said.

“In Keith’s case, it’s a shame because he’d had successful surgery despite being high-risk because of his size. It was unlucky he then caught pneumonia,” he added. — PTI