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LIFE LESSONS
Eating Ourselves to Death
The lesson from Ricky Naputi we all tragically failed to learn
In 2012 Ricky Naputi finally ate himself to death.
Ricky had the dubious distinction of being the world’s fattest man.
He was so overweight he couldn’t stand up by himself. When he died, he hadn’t walked for 7 years.
Even talking was such an effort that it left him struggling for breath.
The tragedy of Ricky’s death is that everyone could clearly see it coming long before it happened, yet it made no difference. He carried on over-eating until his body got too big to live anymore.
Doctors had warned him for years.
He spoke to multiple obesity experts and surgeons, who all stressed that if he wanted to live he must lose weight.
Ricky himself knew what was happening. He just couldn’t stop himself.
He desperately wanted surgery to reduce the size of his stomach by 80% believing this was the only way to save his life.
Yet he was repeatedly told that the surgeons couldn’t operate until he first lost 45kg (100 pounds) on his own.
