Carol Ann Yager (January 26, 1960 – July 18, 1994) was one of the most severely obese people in history, and the heaviest woman ever recorded.Yager lost the most weight by non-surgical means in the shortest documented time (521 lbs. (236 kg) in three months).
When Yager died in 1994 at the age of 34, she weighed about 1200 lbs (544 kg), and was 5' 7" (170 cm) in height. Bizarre magazine reported that she was estimated to have been more than 5' wide (152 cm),although this measurement has not been verified by Yager's medical team or family members. Shortly before her death, however, she was able to fit through her custom-built 48" (121 cm) wide front door.Undocumented information from firefighters and rescue personnel of the Beecher Fire Department stated that they had to remove the picture window in the front room of her house to get her body out when she died.[citation needed] Published reports quoted her then-boyfriend as stating that he estimated her peak weight at about 1600 pounds (727 kg), when questioned about this estimate, Yager's doctor declined comment.
Yager stated that she had developed an eating disorder as a child in response to being sexually abused by a "close family member," although in later interviews, she indicated that there were other contributing factors to her severe obesity. At the same time, however, she denied eating anything more than normal quantities of food.
She lived throughout most of her life in Beecher, Michigan, in Mount Morris Township, near Flint, Michigan, and was cared for in her final years by health care professionals, friends, her daughter Heather and son Stephen Bishop, and other family members, many of whom visited daily.Eventually, she was moved into a nursing home. She appeared on The Jerry Springer Show, and was the subject of attention from several dieting gurus.
In January 1993, she was admitted to Hurley Medical Center, weighing-in at 1189 pounds (539 kg).She suffered from cellulitis due to a bacterial infection, and immunodeficiency. She stayed in the hospital for three months, where she was restricted to a 1200 calorie diet, and while there lost 521 pounds (236 kg), though most of this was believed to have been fluid. (Severely obese people often suffer from edema, and their weight can fluctuate rapidly as fluid is taken up or released.) Yager suffered from many other obesity-related health problems as well, including breathing difficulty, a dangerously high blood sugar level, and stress on her heart and other organs.
As is common with many severely obese patients, Yager was not able to stand or walk,[2] because her muscles were not strong enough to support her, due in part to muscle atrophy from disuse. Yager was hospitalized 13 times in two years, according to Beecher Fire Department chief Bennie Zappa. Each trip required as many as 15 to 20 firefighters from two stations to assist ambulance workers to convey Yager to the ambulance in relay fashion. One team inside the house would pass her through the doorway to another team on the outside, who would pass her to another team inside the ambulance, where she would ride on the floor. Each trip cost the township up to $450.00 per station. A short time before her death, Yager's latest boyfriend, Larry Maxwell, who was characterized by her family as being "an opportunist who courted media attention for money-making possibilities," married her friend, Felicia White.Maxwell had said that the only donation in Yager's name he ever received was for $20,although numerous talk shows, newspapers, radio stations, and other national and international media are reported to have offered her cash and other gifts in exchange for interviews, pictures, etc.Diet maven Richard Simmons was quoted as saying that he was "angry that Yager's story was actively peddled to tabloid and television media by Maxwell and others."
Yager's death certificate lists kidney failure as the cause of death, with morbid obesity and multiple organ failure as contributing causes.Yager was buried privately, with about 90 friends and family members attending memorial services.
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