He also told her (according to him on the Today show) that her obese husband would die before her statistically and she would end up in the group of single, obese women.

I think this is a little tactless, but if she wasn't getting the picture then he had to do something to make her see the gravity of the problem.

We don't know exactly what he said, we don't know his tone of voice. He also basically told her that she would be single for the rest of her life if she didn't lose weight. That's pretty tactless and shows some poor bedside manner to me. But that's not the point. I'm not on the said of his patient. I think no matter what he said, she needs to get over it because some people are always going to be mean and tactless and at the end of the day, he thought he was doing what was best for her.

Explain this sentence, it doesn't make any sense - how did he not call her fat 'to her face' but instead called her fat 'to the public'?

What
the hell?

This is his JOB.

Of course, I suppose it kind of depends on how he worded it, but maybe she needs to take some of that energy she spent on getting offended and use it to, I don't know, lose weight?

I can't imagine what it would be like to be a doctor who sees these patients probably multiple times a year, for health complaints that you KNOW are related to their weight, and knowing that these health complaints will only multiply in the coming years, and the entire time, they're refusing to do anything.

I'll attempt to explain. In my mind he has called her fat in public by talking about it on the news (Today show this morning). I think he did also call her fat to her face though. Not that I disagree completely with what he did.

That's what I'm thinking - it's your job to tell people they're being unhealthy, but once you do you're open to criticism. I understand that you don't want a physician to be rude about it, but there probably comes a point when physicians have to be stern with their patients.

Well hell if someone wants to act like they don't realize how big they are are; somebody needs to reiterate that fact and it mind as well be a doctor. Mind as well hear it from someone who will talk bad to you AND help you, then someone on the street cussing your big a** out just cause.

Doctor's office: You getting too dayum big Ms. SoandSo. Now I have a plan that can help you, help yourself.

On the street: Lady get your big a** out the way. Folks are in a hurry!!!!!!













teehee

Also better than ending up on an operating room/catherization room table after having a heart attack.

I completely agree, I was over 200lbs last fall and none of my doctors would say anything to me. I had horrible blood sugar problems and because of them I went on a diet similar to south beach that I still mostly follow. I would have loved it if my doctor was like hi your sugar problems are because you're fat. It would have made me realize that it was my weight that caused the problems instead of me thinking OMG I'M DYING.

I've since lost 70lbs and haven't had a sugar episode in a long time. I was shamed into it by comments people in my life made instead of doing it for a medical reason. I think the lady needs to get over it and lose the weight. You can't sue someone for telling the truth in a diagnosis.

YES! In April my fiance had to go to the hospital because he needed an emergency angioplasty. It was really scary. The doctor had told him in January that his EKG and his cholesterol were in the healthy range, but his blood pressure was high. Unfortunately, in April the doctor found that he had plaque build up in his vessels that could have caused a massive heart attack and death if untreated. He was very lucky. And he isn't even obese; he just needed to lose about 20 pounds which he has. The doctors are very pleased with his progress and all is well now.

Obesity is a major factor in early death from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and stroke. The doctor would be remiss if he hadn't discussed her weight with the patient.

That's great that he's doing better - there have been a ton of impressive advances in cardiology over the years, and it's good that your fiancee has benefited and is doing well.

So many other problems can stem from obesity - better to be blunt than sugarcoat the effects.

We don't have all the information.

It is a doctor's job to alert his/her patients to any health problems they may be facing. If a patient is obese, the doctor needs to say something.

But the doctor also needs to be careful about how to tell a patient that s/he is overweight and should do something about it. This requires sensitivity to the patient and knowledge of his/her situation.

In this case, it sounds like the doctor had been seeing this patient for some time and had spoken with her about her weight before, and she hadn't done anything about it, so maybe a kick in the @$$ was warranted. At the same time, he could have given her a more tactful kick in the @$$ (does that make sense?).

I don't think he could have been more tactful about it. He was doing his job. He spoke with this lady about this several times before, and each time she refused to do something about it. At least this way he got it to stick in her mind for a little bit instead of going in one ear and out the other. And honestly, if she really is 5'7" and in the 250lbs. range, then I'm sure that her doctor isn't the only person who told her she needed to lose weight.

I've shadowed a doctor who had a patient write letters to him complaining about how he approached her weight issue. She came in to the Orthopedic surgeon I was following, complaining of back and shoulder pain.

She wasn't interested in physical therapy, so he simply said the best way to help ease her pain was to stop smoking and lose her excess weight. I was there for the appointment in question, and I saw the letter she wrote. While she was angry about a number of other things (time spent waiting, short visit length with the doctor, my presence in the examination room - which I might add he asked her if it was okay that I was in the room - the list went on) she spent the most significant portion of her time bitching about him only reccomending weight loss.

The point of the story is, tact or no tact, some people simply get upset over things that they shouldn't. As a future doctor, I know that my duty will be to promote the health of my patients, and while I'd like to think that each time I'll do so as tactfully as possible, I think I know that I'm not going to allow dancing around the issue to interfere with my duty as a physician. If this really was a patient he had seen over and over again, I believe that he was simply trying to emphasize the overall importance of his point.