The Hospital: No Place for a Fat Person

As some or more of you may know, I have been spending a lot of time in the hospital in the past few days because my mom experienced chest pressure, weakness and swollen legs. (They have her on Lasix and other meds, in addition to the ones she is already taking.  She is 4'9 because of osteoporosis and basically not visible on a cloudy day. The staff seem to like her a lot because she is super easy to move. They see me as something between a nuisance and a pest.)

My being there got me thinking:  Hospitals are bad, bad places for fat people. Even as visitors. But worse for patients.

For visitors:  uncomfortable chairs, uncomfortable bathrooms, uncomfortable convertible couches, difficult to maneuver elevator spaces.

For patients: under or over judged medication amounts, harassment or bad treatment or lack of treatment by hospital doctors and nurses and aides, badly administered blood pressure tests, blood tests, EKG's, echocardiograms, chest and other x rays; badly fitted hospital gowns; difficult to use bathrooms; difficult or impossible to use beds; improper or incomplete clean-ups or body cleansing by nurses and aides; malicious name calling, ridicule and gossip within earshot of patient. Patient requests frequently ignored or given very slow responses.

So can you just imagine if all these problems for fat people are abolished in FatLand and hospitals are fat user-friendly? Boggles the mind, does it not?