I just read this article and I have no idea how much a "stone" equals in weight. Does anybody know? I didn't think anyone in the US used "stone" as a measurement of weight! I noticed that the article was from UK Reuters but it is about a LA man. I figure it's written that way b/c it was intended for UK readers.
Oddly Enough - UK Reuters
Surgeons slice fat off 58-stone man
Fri Aug 23, 6:36 PM ET
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 58-and-a-half stone man who arrived at a Los Angeles area hospital in a rented panel truck -- the only vehicle that could accommodate his girth -- says he is doing well after surgeons carved 11 stones of fat and excess skin from his body.
Martin Bernardi, a 25-year-old Los Angeles man who has been confined to his home and mostly his bed for the past five years because of his weight, said on Friday he considered the operation a first step toward his return to a normal life.
"I just want to get my life back, to enjoy the small things like just getting out and walking with my friends," Bernardi said. "I'm looking forward to just hearing that alarm clock go off at 6 a.m., getting up and going to work."
Bernardi, who stands about 5 foot 10 inches tall, hopes to drop his weight to about 18 stone and gain work as a probation officer after a second surgery that will reduce his food intake to one or two tablespoons worth at a time.
Members of Bernardi's family, who were desperate after being turned away by several hospitals, brought him in a rented panel truck to the Tri-City Regional Medical Centre in Hawaiian Gardens, California, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, on August 12.
Three days later, nationally known obesity surgeon Dr. Mal Fobi donated his services in performing a so-called abdominal panniculectomy on Bernardi, removing 11 stones of fat and skin, Fobi's spokesman George Pappas said.
When Bernardi heals from that surgery, Pappas said, he will undergo a second operation to give him the "Fobi Pouch," in which the upper part of the stomach is stapled off to create a small bag that will only hold one or two tablespoons of food and prevent him from overeating.
Bernardi has been unable to work for the past five years, surviving on government disability benefits and family members to feed and care for him. He blamed a genetic disposition and poor eating habits for the massive weight gain.
"The weight just progressed and progressed and progressed until I wasn't able to do certain things," he said. "I ate a lot. I ate just whenever I wanted and wherever I wanted. I ate a lot of fast food."
Pappas said that previously the heaviest person ever to undergo Fobi Pouch surgery weighed 57 stone 13 lb. A Las Vegas man who checked in at 66 stones 1 lb had the operation after first dropping about a third of that weight on a six-month water diet.
