A couple of days ago in the Associated Press, there was a storyabout a man, Patrick Deuel, who weighed 1,072 pounds before he wasadmitted to a hospital in Nebraska.

He has since lost 321 pounds and hopes to lose at least another450. That leaves him at 300 pounds, still overweight, but notlethally so, at least in the short term.

His care is estimated to cost into the millions of dollars, withthe hospital most likely having to cover much of it. The questionis how did this happen. How did a person get to weigh over a halfton?

Deuel blames his condition in part on genetics. In part, so whatwas the other part? Was it the fast food companies and their highcaloric foods?

Not really, it was personal responsibility, or more correctly,the lack thereof.

Deuel has been bedridden since last fall and had much difficultyfinding a hospital, most likely because of the expense to thehospital. He required a special ambulance and two hospital bedsjoined together to accommodate his girth.

Why wasn’t anyone alarmed at the time when he weighed 500pounds, or 350? The only people that could possibly have an excuseto be that heavy are professional football players and sumowrestlers.

Deuel’s goals are to walk out of the hospital, go to afootball game and have a walk with his wife.

Well at least two of those involve walking, a surefire calorieburner. Ed Board is not saying that his weight was entirely hisproblem, genetic calorie retention is a hardship and sometimes eventhe most lauded diets don’t work for some people.

We just feel that someone should have noticed much earlier.Obesity shouldn’t be something that’s catered to.People shouldn’t be allowed to park in disabled spaces due toweight, nor should they be allowed to use the motorized shoppingcarts found at supermarkets.

Obesity is a growing problem in the United States, as it is inmost of the western world, and as such, it shouldn’t becatered to, it should be treated. The public and the governmenthave spent millions of dollars on anti-drug, drinking and drivingand most recently anti-smoking programs.

The same level of effort is required for the problem ofobesity.

Ed Board suggests the old method of “stop eating so much,and start exercising.”