London - Arabstoday
Keith Martin, 42, the world’s fattest man A Briton who devours eight hotdogs for breakfast has won the dubious accolade of being named the world’s fattest man. Keith Martin, 42, tips the scales at 58 stone, and is so large that he is bed-ridden. His needs are putting an extra drain on NHS resources and costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds as he requires an army of 18 medical professionals to look after him, including ambulance staff, carers and nurses. Eight ambulance workers must be on hand to help hoist his giant frame to a reinforced vehicle for frequent hospital visits close to his home in Harlesden, North-West London. Trips for health checks are the only occasions in the past ten years on which he has left his bed. He also requires four carers to visit him twice a day and four nurses three times a week to wash him and monitor his health as his staggering weight is putting massive strain on his heart and other internal organs. Medics say he would need to shed half his bulk before he could even be considered for a gastric band to aid his weight loss. Mr Martin took the crown of heaviest man on the planet after the previous title-holder – a 90-stone Mexican – went on a crash diet. Manuel Uribe, 44, is still listed as the heaviest man in the Guinness Book of Records but is believed to have shrunk to a relatively svelte 31st 6lb. Mr Martin has also overtaken another former world’s heaviest man, fellow Brit Paul Mason. Mr Mason, a 51-year-old former postman from Ipswich, slimmed down from 70st to 49st after being warned he was dangerously close to death.