Tallwomen.org - Help 6'3" Sharon Purcell

04.11.2009

Help 6'1" Elizabeth help her 6'3 mum Sharon

My 6'1" friend Elizabeth is desperately trying to help her mum

Hello everyone,

here's a story I need to share it with you (make sure you read the Update!):

Winston-Salem, NC -- A 600-pound woman that wants to lose weight is quickly running out of options. Sharon Purcell spent the last month in Wake Forest Baptist Hospital. Now she is ready for discharge, and has no where to go because at 623 pounds, Sharon is just too large for most weight rehabilitation centers. She isn't a candidate for surgery, and she can't go home, because her bed and lifts won't fit through the door. "To me, food is life and food is death. If I don't eat, I'm going to die. If I eat, I'm going to die," said Purcell. She says not being able to say no to food brought her to her weight. And then that weight on her lungs, kidneys, and other organs put her in the hospital. "Her legs are so big in the middle she can't put them together to walk. She has lymphedema, bad swelling, she's in pain all the time," said Elizabeth McLaurin, Purcell's daughter. McLaurin says now doctors want her in weight rehabilitation, but so far she's been turned down by more than 600 clinics in North Carolina. "Most places go anywhere from 200 pounds to 400 pounds if that much," said Purcell. Even her own home doesn't have the space she needs. "They can't fit the stuff through our doorway that she needs, that's why she can't be at home. Her beds won't fit through the door, her lifts won't fit through the door and we physically can't take care of her," said McLaurin. Purcell knows time is running out. Doctor Tom Walsh, a bariatrics surgeon, says at this weight, her body is breaking down, "It will not happen within hours or days, but certainly over months, we're not talking year". Around 5:00 on Wednesday, McLaurin said they may have found a place in Illinois that can make accommodations, but because the facility is out of state, they'll have to pay the transportation fee out of pocket. That's 6,500 dollars the family doesn't have.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130403

Winston-Salem, NC -- A 600-pound woman is fighting for her life from a hospital bed and desperately needs help raising money to get the help she needs. We first told you about 47-year-old Sharon Purcell on Wednesday. She's been turned down by hundreds of rehabilitation centers because she's too large, but WFMY News 2's Ashley Smith sat down with Sharon again today. Purcell's family found a clinic in Illinois that will help, but that move requires a special ambulance that costs 6500 dollars. If they can't come up with 3250 dollars by Monday, Purcell will lose her spot. "It's weird that 100 pounds goes to 2, 2 goes to 3, 4. I always wear a loose fitting shirt or something anyway, so the pounds didn't seem to amount up to me," said Sharon Purcell when she explains her weight gain. She said she didn't realize until she got to the hospital her body had grown to 623 pounds, "It was shattering. You know, you see people on tv and you think, 'God, how'd they get that way?' and then all of a sudden, you realize you are one of those people." Purcell compares her relationship with food to that of an alcoholic or a smoker. And food left her body at such a size, her legs couldn't hold her up. When she stopped walking three years ago, it was her family that facilitated her addiction. "We wanted to make her happy, but now we want her to live. We see what we did was wrong," said Elizabeth McLaurin, her daughter. McLaurin explained the three years of not moving created the health problems, pneumonia and kidney failure, that landed her in the hospital. Now, Purcell has a second chance. A weight rehabilitation center in Rock Island, Illinois is ready to help. Unfortunately, because it is out of state, she needs to cover the ambulance fee out of pocket. "If it doesn't come by Monday, they could give her bed to someone else, and then we are back to square one looking for another place," said McLaurin. Going home means sitting still, and sitting still puts her in the vicious cycle of her body breaking down all over again. "More or less to me, that would be death. Because in the long run, it is. It would be a slow death," said Purcell. "I need to know that I can start right. I can get these eating habits and them [her family] on the right track and together we can all work it out and be happy in Illinois," said Purcell. If you would like to help Sharon Purcell reserve her spot in Illinois, you can donate to the "Sharon Gardner Purcell Trust Fund" at any Wachovia Bank.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130540

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130626

Update from Elizabeth (October 31st 2009)

Well, she is in a nursing home now. I found one in Illinois where we live now but they are worthless!!! She is in the hopsital again because of them. They let a wound get so bad on her leg that she almost had to have it cut off so now we are trying to get her to another nursing home or rehab center that will actually help her with rehab!!! All she wants to do is walk again and we have to come up with another $950 to transport her when we find another home or we can buy the equipment she needs for the home that she is in now!!! We really dont know what to do!!!

My whole family moved here from NC and we really dont know what to do except for get the eqipment she needs at her current rehab place and the home has to pay nothing they dont have to have no more things there for her than they do now!!! She needs a new bed that will rotate her so she wont get wounds and also equpiment she can excise with that will equip her weight!!! All that will cost us roughy $3000 to $4000 we just dont know what to do anymore. It's all like a nightmare!!!

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