Located in New York, Brookhaven Obesity Clinic has 75 beds allotted for its patients. In addition, the clinic is featured on a weekly television show on The Learning Channel.
This clinic is not for the average morbidly obese American but for what the television has dubbed the “super-sized obese.”
The average weight, for those in this program, ranges from 400 to more than 800 pounds. Addicted to food, their struggle is an uphill battle. It is not the same as being addicted to drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes where some can stop entirely. With a food addiction you cannot stay away from eating.
Each week the show highlights one or more patients and the day to day struggles they face to not overeat and to stay in the program. It will detail how that person got to that weight and eventually to the obesity clinic itself. They highlight activities, following what the patient eats that day, their exercises program and allotting time for that patient to talk about himself and the program.
Brookhaven has the equipment to deal with people of this size. Their beds can support the weight and are wider than a normal hospital bed. They provide wheelchairs to fit. Last week’s show highlighted a patient who was 800 pounds. Even with extra large wheelchairs, this man could not fit in to any that the clinic owned. The clinic ordered an $8,000 wheelchair especially for him. Even a special scale had to be purchased that could hold the weight and record weights in excessive of 350 pounds.
What else does Brookhaven offer?
Brookhaven offers a facility and a staff who are experience with this type of obese patient. As stated bove, special equipment is needed, in including beds, wheelchairs. Hoyle lifts capable of holding extra heavy weight is needed for those who cannot get out of bed on their own or even with assistance.
Each patient is treated with dignity from the staff.
A nutritionist will meet with a new client and find out what they like to eat and chose a calorie count to help them lose weight. Some of these clients are use to eating 3,000 to 5,000 calories per day and even more. Here, they may be placed on a 2200 calorie diet which is quite a reduction from what these patients can consume, sometimes at one meal.
Physical therapy is mandatory and they are constantly changing the programs for the therapy as the patient progresses. Initially, therapies might just be leg lifts while sitting in a wheelchair. Then progressing to resistance training where the therapist holds an 8-inch rubber band around one leg at a time, causing the patient to have to work againist resistance.
They offer counseling but it is not mandatory. A psychologist will stop by a patient’s room who may be struggling just to give support. From what I can see, no pressure is exerted to have them meet with her weekly.
Length of a stay can be years and many are away from family, having traveled by ambulances that can handle their weight. It really puts stress on both the patient and their loved ones. Counseling can help in these situations if they all took advantage of that service.
One discussion that has been an ongoing theme, from last year, is whether or not the residents can order take-out food. The decision was made, by the administrator, to allow take-out food into the facility. The administrator felt it would help the patients once they were discharged to home, having learned how to handle the temptation.
The only requirement was that they can get to the outside door to accept deliveries of food. For those who were still bed bound, friends would meet the delivery person at the door and deliver to their rooms. Whereas you or I would order one meal, this population would order two or three meals for themselves. In fact, some inpatients did not lose weight and even gained over a year of being there.
The administration installed cameras at the door to research just how much food was coming into the facility. Naturally, they were surprised and horrified.
Now, the patients in the obesity program are all on one wing and a guard sits outside the door. No one gets in with food. If a visitor has any type of a bag or a woman has a pocketbook, their bag will be inspected to make sure no food is going in.
Last season’s finale featured this topic of smuggling food in and how although they are on a guarded unit, that food is still getting to some obesity patients. It will be interesting to see just how they are smuggling food in. There is nothing like an addiction to make a person find a way for what they want.
I suspect they are getting the food in through a second floor window, by a rope. I say this because one of their clients, who they had profiled in the past, lived on a third floor and had limited mobility around his bedroom. He use to get his take-out food by dropping a basket sending money to pay, and he would then haul up his food in the same basked. It will be interesting to see if I am right.
The decision to stay or leave is up to the patients. Some leave sooner than they should and end up coming back into the program again. Battling food will be an ongoing struggle for the rest of their lives and will never be easy.
To me, one of the big benefits is being away from ridicule and finding support and understanding as only another “super-sized” person can give.
Brookhaven highlights the struggle to get into the program, the day to day struggles fought, and the small victories attained. Overall, I feel they have a good television show and it is done with compassion and professionalism.
