480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch

[MDM4AU 332]

STUART, Fla. -- A 480-pound Martin County woman has died after emergency workers tried to remove her from the couch where she had remained for about six years.

Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.

Everyone going inside the home had to wear protective gear. The stench was so powerful they had to blast in fresh air.

A preliminary autopsy on the the four-foot, ten-inch woman lists the cause of death as "morbid obesity." But officials want to know more about the circumstances inside the home.

Investigators say Grinds lived with a man named Herman Thomas, who says he tried to take care of her the best he could. He has told them he tried repeatedly to get her up, but simply couldn't. No charges have been filed, but officials are looking into negligence issues.

Emergency workers had to remove some sliding glass doors and lift the couch, with Grinds still on it, to a trailer behind a pickup truck. Removing her from the couch would be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin had literally become one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.

She died at Martin Memorial Hospital South, still attached to the couch.

Neighbors say they had no idea Grinds lived at the duplex, though they had seen Thomas and some children outside.

Copyright 2004 by . The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

LINK

[Guest AuNuma1]

4'10", 480lbs!

[tiger88 934]

There was a story in Atlanta about an extremely huge woman who was ill and got some x-rays done. They showed some unexplainable objects around her gut and chest area. They started digging around in her folds and among other things found a tv remote and some loose change.

Guess what they nicknamed her? THE HUMAN COUCH!

[AUesquire 1]

You just have to shake your head and wonder how it could ever get to that point. I'm in full agreement with looking into negligence issues. Usually it is a family member of some sort caring for(or not caring for) the morbidly obese individual. At some point, you've got to realize there's a problem and call somebody, ANYBODY, and ask for help. If a person can't even stand up with your help, it's your responsibility to get some help before that person dies.

My God, the skin became one with the sofa???

Sorry for the soapbox, but we see this kind of thing all too often and you just wonder why something wasn't done.

[Guest AuNuma1]

How does skin graft itself to a couch? Is that in any way related to bed soars? I know if a person is in bed too long they get bed soars so...pretty nasty anyway.

[CCTAU 3,327]

You just have to shake your head and wonder how it could ever get to that point. I'm in full agreement with looking into negligence issues. Usually it is a family member of some sort caring for(or not caring for) the morbidly obese individual. At some point, you've got to realize there's a problem and call somebody, ANYBODY, and ask for help. If a person can't even stand up with your help, it's your responsibility to get some help before that person dies.

My God, the skin became one with the sofa???

Sorry for the soapbox, but we see this kind of thing all too often and you just wonder why something wasn't done.

That's crap. Don't plop your ass on the couch and stay there. Unless she was restrained, then its her own fault.

[TitanTiger 20,499]

Well, maybe it wasn't originally your intent to stay there, but at some point it would have required some help to get up off of the couch. Of course, you first have to ASK for the help...

[MDM4AU 332]

Someone continued to bring food to he person that couldn't get up. Not saying you stop bringing food - you just stop with the twinkies, fried chicken, bacon, pizza, gravy, and lard over fat-back! She got the 10,000,000,000 calories per day from someone.

[stoic-one 1,547]

At some point, the caloric intake could have got down to near nothing, and she would have still gained weight. You just can't burn that many calories laying on your back.....

[SouthLink02 8]

Wow.....I mean.....Wow

[AUesquire 1]

CCTAU, I don't think she can take responsibility now...she's dead. Yes, absolutely she ultimately is the one that paid the price, but the one stuffing twinkies down her gullet has to have some accountability as well. At some point, she can't help herself anymore.

[bammanmr 0]

that was a true 4 x 4.

[CCTAU 3,327]

CCTAU, I don't think she can take responsibility now...she's dead. Yes, absolutely she ultimately is the one that paid the price, but the one stuffing twinkies down her gullet has to have some accountability as well. At some point, she can't help herself anymore.

She already has. You sound like a lawyer...always somebody else's at fault. Sometimes people die because THEY are stupid and its nobody else's fault. Why can't we as a society accept that. You cannot protect the ignorant.

[BustemBigBlue 176]

In a related story, Krispy Kreme just released its new glazed doughnut flavored smoothie.

[SLAG-91 1,483]

That story is just revolting on several levels...I'm glad my lunch has been safely digested.

[AUesquire 1]

I sound like a lawyer because I are one.

I'm not trying to put all the blame on this guy living with her. She IS the one that paid the price. But at some point, she became totally incapable of taking care of herself. My God, the woman was fused to the couch and the stench was so bad they had to wear HazMat gear. It's not a simple matter of "hey, get your fat a$$ up off the sofa and get some exercise"

Actually, this is an all too common occurrence and it is very commonplace for negligence charges to be filed against a family member or caregiver. And by the way, it's not some money hungry lawyer that's looking into the negligence issue. This is a criminal negligence issue handled by the police and the DA's office.

The civil suit and money hungry lawyers come later.