US 'kidney sisters' must lose weight before transplant

[RandySF]

Two sisters whose life sentences in Mississippi were dropped on the condition one donates a kidney to the other must lose a combined 160lb (73kg) before the transplant, doctors say.

Jamie and Gladys Scott, who had been in jail for 16 years, were freed on 7 January because Jamie suffers from kidney failure.

They were convicted in 1994 for a robbery that netted a mere $11 (£7).

Doctors are also requiring Gladys to stop smoking cigarettes.

Jamie Scott, 38, told the Associated Press news agency that she must drop 100lb and Gladys, 36, lose 60lb before their doctors will test their compatibility for a transplant.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12563223

[Lyric]

1. I wish them the best of luck.

I'm struggling with a similar situation with my Mom, and I have plenty of sympathy.

[joshcryer]

3. Best wishes Lyric. And to these ladies, too, they were jailed unjustly.

And I'm glad they're free. Hopefully losing the weight will be easy on them (I know it's not going from 230 to 175 lbs).

[Lyric]

5. I once lost 30 lbs in one month.

I was hospitalized with an infected, swollen, slightly perforated gallbladder and resulting peritonitis, and I was PPO--allowed to ingest absolutely nothing by mouth except for the oral contrast for my almost-daily CT scans. Unfortunately they also forgot to give me anything but saline, pain medication, and Imipenem (an antibiotic) by IV for the first week (and I was too sick and doped up on Dilaudid to notice or complain) so I developed pretty severe hypokalemia (low blood potassium) and started having heart rhythm issues. Trust me--you do NOT want to experience what it's like to have potassium chloride (even diluted!) pumped into your arm while being forced to swallow potassium pills, which are nearly the size of your thumb. The IV potassium chloride is horrid--your arm feels like it's on fire, no matter how much they dilute it. And those pills are a nightmare to swallow. You feel like you're choking, and they hardly gave me enough water to swallow normal pills, much less ones THAT big.

Once my potassium level was stabilized again, they gave me liquid nutrition via IV, but I still wound up leaving the hospital 30 lbs lighter. It was not a pleasant experience.

[SoCalDem]

2. That's going to be a really hard thing to do..

I hope they get plenty of guidance & help:hug:

[RandySF]

4. Poverty will kill you one way or the other,

[Oak2004]

6. That's evil

This particular stunt is done on larger women all the time. I even know of a case in which a woman was denied cancer treatment unless she lost 200 lbs (which simply could not be done in sufficient time to save her life). Fortunately my neighbors, who were officers of one of the major fat activist organizations, were able to find her an oncologist who was more interested in saving her life than turning her into a svelte corpse.

It is rare (it it ever is true) when the comparatively minor additional surgical risk of obesity exceeds the risk of delaying treatment for a life threatening condition. Yet some doctors continue to play these games. Unfortunately as prisoners they probably don't have the option of finding another doctor.

How evil is this? You know that dieters produce ketones, yes? Ketosis burdens the kidneys and can cause kidney failure. The woman with the bad kidneys may as well have been sentenced to death.

[JVS]

7. Huh? This makes no sense at all!

1. Since when does doing good things for your own family qualify you for early release from prison?
2. Wouldn't it make more sense to test for compatibility first before having them engage in weight-loss?
3. Life sentence for this crime is obscene, but it's Mississippi, so I should expect that.

[Mr Generic Other]

8. they were released from prison

because keeping them in would have resulted in the prison system having to pay for kidney dialysis or a transplant.
the women should not have been in prison for as long as they were regardless of their health.

[pnwmom]

9. Why are the doctors insisting on the weight loss before testing for compatibility?

[REP]

10. It's possible that she misunderstood the doctor

From other stories it seems they have already been tested for compatibility. Many people do not understand the tx process well.

[Nikia]

11. I don't know how tall she is, but that much weight loss seems unecessary

She weighs 254lb and is expected to get down to 154lb. Although I could see that as an eventual goal for health, I don't understand why it is necessary for life saving surgery.