Autopsy Reveals What The Inside Of An Obese Person Looks Like

The BBC are set to air a groundbreaking documentary showing the autopsy of an obese 17 stone woman, who died of heart failure, revealing the impact her wight had upon her body.

Obesity - The Post Mortem, will be shown on BBC 3 on Tuesday, and will detail the effects on her skin, heart, liver, lungs and kidneys.

BBC

The woman, from Long Beach Island in California, donated her body to medical science. She was 5ft5 tall, meaning that with a body weight of 17 stone she was classed as morbidly obese. She passed away in her early 60’s, her arm was removed and cremated, with the ashes being passed on to her family.

BBC

One of the observations made was that a think layer of fat felt like “butter with a mesh going through it.” The technical curator of the museum of pathology at Queen Mary University, Carla Valentine, added: “I needed a lot more strength to cut through the tissue which kind of bloomed out in neon yellow.”

BBC

Speaking about her heart, pathologist Dr Mike Osborn said:

“The heart feels baggy, when you pick up the heart of someone fit it would be tight and hard like picking up a piece of steak, this is like more like a bag.”

“At 449 grams, it’s a heavy heart, despite her weight this woman is quite a petite person and should have a heart of 225 grams so this is much heavier.”

BBC

The liver, which was not as soft as you would expect to find in a healthy person.

BBC

Osborn added: “Heart failure is different to a heart attack, when it fails it doesn’t fail straight away, it fails over time so symptoms are gradual.”

“This lady might have been able to walk up 10 flights of stairs three years ago then only five flights and then struggle up one flight of stairs, it was a progressive disease as the heart became worse and worse.”

You can stream the full documentary on the BBC from Tuesday onwards.

H/T: The Metro, The Mirror