450kg Mexican with weight-loss wish dies
October 10, 2008

JUST a week ago, Jose Luis Garza went on television in the hope of getting help to solve his overweight problem.



But before the 450kg Mexican could shape up, he died of heart failure on Tuesday.

Emergency officials had to knock down the bedridden man's bedroom wall and put him in the back of a friend's truck as he fought for his life.

The 47-year-old, whose sister moved in to take care of him, was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in northern Mexico.

It took carpenters four hours to build his coffin.


HUGE: Cemetery workers take a break after digging a hole big enough for Mr Garza's coffin.

Family members criticised officials for not moving Mr Garza to a hospital before he became critically ill.

His brother Pedro said: 'If he had received support at the time he asked for it, he would still be with us.'

State officials argued there was little they could do.

Said Nuevo Leon state health department spokesman Julio Cesar Cano: 'The attention he would have received at a hospital would have been the same he received at home.

'Moving a patient of that magnitude is very difficult.'

About 150 friends and family waited for more than four hours at a cemetery while carpenters built a special coffin for Mr Garza's burial.

A funeral home worker, Mr Maribel Cantu said: 'The family wanted to cremate him but there wasn't an adequate oven for someone his size.

'He is the biggest man we have buried.'

Mr Garza's coffin arrived at the cemetery in a white van but there was a further delay as cemetery workers had to enlarge the grave.

Just last week, Mr Garza made his television appeal in an attempt to start over.

He revealed his battle with his weight problem took a turn for the worse when he became depressed and over-ate nine months ago after his parents died of natural causes within two weeks of each other.

He had been bedridden for four months.

The former chef at a bowling alley said he has always been overweight and blamed a diet of junk food and greasy tacos.

Unfortunately, his condition worsened over the weekend as he struggled to breathe and eat.

AP