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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 08/21/2004 :  10:15:39  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
I get Bone Head of the Day in my email (www.boneheadoftheday.com) it had this story in it:

quote:
Gayle Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.


quote:
Emergency workers had to remove some sliding glass doors and lift the couch, with Grinds still on it, to a trailer behind a pickup truck. Removing her from the couch would be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin had literally become one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.


http://www.wftv.com/news/3643877/detail.html

I think I have heard of stories where fabric gets stuck into the skin, but I'm pretty sure that its normally from melting something like plastic on. How does the skin get grafted to the fabric?

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov

tw101356
Skeptic Friend

USA
333 Posts

Posted - 08/21/2004 :  17:09:47   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send tw101356 a Private Message
I read some further news articles on this. She had apparently been sitting on that couch continuously for years.

This is kinda gross.





- TW
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 08/21/2004 :  17:36:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Yes, I'm just thinking how could it become that the skin got infused with the couch? I know things like rope can become infused with trees because they grow outward, is it the same with human skin?

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 08/21/2004 :  21:18:16   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
If there was constant feces and urine on the skin, and no weight relief, you'd have one huge bedsore. That would stick to the material on the sofa. What I don't understand is why they couldn't have removed just the upholstery rather than the whole couch, but I guess you'd have to have been there. Some people in this world are very sad.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  01:05:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Many people are familiar with the nice weave patterns one finds in one's skin after leaning or sitting on a broad-weave fabric for too long. Since skin cells take a month to go from the deepest layers to the outer, dead layers, I imagine it's possible that after such a time, the skin really would "fuse" with the fabric (to the extent that the skin has grown through the fabric). And that's without bedsores.

The following may be graphic...

With bedsores tossed into the mix - and six years of bedsores, to boot - I can well imagine a disgusting, scabby mass not only completely meshed with the uphostlery, but also dripped and fused with and through the stuffing, all the way to the structural parts of the couch. And if the padding was foam, the mess would have eaten through it, easily. If polyfill or something like it, the woman's fluids would have easily suffused it before drying.

I'd be willing to bet that the woman's back and legs were simply masses of scar tissue, shot through with whatever was left of the fabric which had once covered the couch. Actually, I'm amazed that she could poop after so long - that things hadn't gotten hopelessly "clogged up" before now.

Which, through a chain of thought even I am unwilling to go through again to explain, leads me to this question: what kind of mindset does it take (assuming she weighed much less six years ago) to say, "I don't care" with regard to defecating on the couch, and then not cleaning it up? I mean, not that I've ever had the urge, but I could at least understand a bizarre curiosity about what the experience might be like, once (perferrably on a couch that was going to be thrown away, anyway). But I simply cannot comprehend the motivations behind remaining seated afterwards.

Good grief! Do you think she held it for as long as she could, and afterwards just thought, "well, now that I've done that, there's really no point in moving?"

Oh, this is going to have me going "WTF was she thinking?" for a good, long while.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  09:45:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Well, with what you have just said Dave, I am now glad that they didn't have any pictures.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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N C More
Skeptic Friend

53 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  16:48:50   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send N C More a Private Message
Acckkk!...that is a seriously disturbing incident. Why this poor woman didn't die from infection long before it came to this, is beyond me to comprehend. It's things like this that lead me to wonder about the families of these unfortunate people. Why didn't someone just call the board of health?

"An open mind is like an open window...without a good screen you'll get some really weird bugs!"
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R.Wreck
SFN Regular

USA
1191 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  17:38:49   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send R.Wreck a Private Message
quote:
I could at least understand a bizarre curiosity about what the experience might be like, once


I don't think I could work up even that bizzare curiousity. Hell, afer getting two crumb-snatchers through the diaper stage, I'd say I have vicariously experienced enough of that to last a lifetime.

BTW, what dumbass kept bringing her food for the last six years as she did the vulcan butt-meld with the couch? How much smarts does it take, after the first in situ hershey squirt, to say "I'm not bringing you any more food until you get your fat ass off the couch and clean that up!!!"? Obviously, this woman was disturbed, but someone was enabling big time.

The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley

The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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satans_mom
Skeptic Friend

USA
148 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  20:21:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send satans_mom an AOL message  Send satans_mom a Yahoo! Message Send satans_mom a Private Message
Posted by NC More
quote:

Why didn't someone just call the board of health?



According to the article, or it may have been another article over the same incident, I don't remember, the neighbors didn't even know the woman was inside. Her husband (?!?) and some children (?!?) played outside often, but there was never any sign of Gayle Laverne Grinds.

Yo mama's so fat, she's on both sides of the family.

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satans_mom
Skeptic Friend

USA
148 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  20:22:37   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send satans_mom an AOL message  Send satans_mom a Yahoo! Message Send satans_mom a Private Message
I like reading about stories like this.

Yo mama's so fat, she's on both sides of the family.

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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  20:31:19   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
R. Wreck wrote:
quote:
I don't think I could work up even that bizzare curiousity.
Hey, I didn't say that I could, either. I just said I could understand such a curiosity.

My kid just pooped in the potty for the first time today. And then, he took the potty apart, carried the basin part over to the toilet, dumped it, flushed, and only then started sceaming "Daddy! I pooped in my potty!" I had to piece this together after the fact, as I'd gone upstairs to freshen our icewaters. I'm so proud.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2004 :  23:02:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
quote:
With bedsores tossed into the mix - and six years of bedsores, to boot - I can well imagine a disgusting, scabby mass not only completely meshed with the uphostlery, but also dripped and fused with and through the stuffing, all the way to the structural parts of the couch. And if the padding was foam, the mess would have eaten through it, easily. If polyfill or something like it, the woman's fluids would have easily suffused it before drying.



I don't think it's possible to remain seated for six years and live. The pressure ulcers that would develope after even a few weeks would be horrendous (you can get a bad one from even a single day of immobility), and the damage to muscle tissue would be bad as well, causing all kinds of potential complications, maybe even renal failure.

Add in the effect of defecating and urinating on yourself..... you'd have a nice case of septic shock in no time. Enteric bacterial infection that causes septicemia has a high mortality.

I find it difficult to believe anyone could last a month, not to mention six years.

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Skyhawk
New Member

33 Posts

Posted - 08/23/2004 :  00:22:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Skyhawk a Private Message
Well, there are crazy things that happen in this world. Hell, have you read some of the stuff in Guiness World Records? Well I think this woman wins for the biggest couch potato on Earth. But, I would be very interested in the psychological mindset this woman had. Did she just say, "Alright, I did what I needed to do and raised 2 kids. Now let me just lay down, do nothing, and fuck this world." I mean, resting on achouch for that long...wouldn't that make you anxious?
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R.Wreck
SFN Regular

USA
1191 Posts

Posted - 08/23/2004 :  19:24:20   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send R.Wreck a Private Message
DaveW wrote:

quote:
My kid just pooped in the potty for the first time today.


Another step closer to throwing off the yoke of the dreaded diaper bag! Just think, someday soon you'll be able to go somewhere without hauling enough gear to supply a medium sized third world army.

The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley

The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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Starman
SFN Regular

Sweden
1613 Posts

Posted - 08/24/2004 :  00:30:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Starman a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by R.Wreck
DaveW wrote:
quote:
My kid just pooped in the potty for the first time today.

Another step closer to throwing off the yoke of the dreaded diaper bag! Just think, someday soon you'll be able to go somewhere without hauling enough gear to supply a medium sized third world army.
My daughter is almost there, but as we plan to have more kids I guess we'll have a few more years under that yoke.
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dominic_dice
Skeptic Friend

United Kingdom
53 Posts

Posted - 08/31/2004 :  00:36:00   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send dominic_dice a Private Message
I really wish I didn't find things like this funny...I know I shouldn't. =D

"Are you THE dominic_dice"
"No, a dominic_dice. I come in six packs now"
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