On 7/7/2014, Dr. Chen Xiaomei, deputy director of the Weight Loss Center of Jihua Hospital affiliated to Jinan University in Guangzhou, China received a call for help. When answering the phone, the other side emitted an urgent voice: “Auntie, can you save me? I don’t want to die like Mr. Ton Luong because of obesity”.
As it turned out, the boy named Xu Chau Loi, 14 years old but already weighed 180kg. Doctor Tieu My felt that the boy was too young, if he was left obese for a long time, it would be very dangerous, so he was determined to save him. But in the end, how did the boy’s living environment and diet lead to this result?
14-year-old Xu Chau Loi weighs 180kg.
The boy was born healthy, normal, but after 3 years old, amazing changes
Xuzhou Lei lives in Jiangxi, China. Before the age of 3, the boy was still developing normally. At the age of 3, Chau Loi followed his relatives to Hainan Island to play for a month. When returning, Chau Loi’s parents were amazed because their son looked completely different, he had gained nearly 6kg.
What is more frightening is that Chau Loi eats and drinks healthier and his weight skyrockets, when he was 6 years old, he reached 60kg. Every year, the boy’s weight increased rapidly and by the time he was 14 years old, he had reached 180kg. At this time, Chau Loi’s thighs are thicker than the waist of a normal person, his legs are swollen, and blood circulation is also problematic.
Even going down the stairs, the boy needed someone to help him, walking a few meters was gasping for breath. At the same time, blood pressure also reached an amazing number of 160, while the average person only exceeded 120 was very dangerous. The boy is only 14 years old but already faces the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and possibly even heart failure.
Before the age of 3, Chau Loi was a completely normal boy.
Many people wonder how the boy’s parents could let him gain so much weight. In fact, 10 years ago, Chau Loi’s father took his son to the hospital for treatment, but it was not good. The family also took the child to the weight loss center and martial arts school but still could not solve the weight problem.
To force their son to lose weight, his parents only fed him a small amount of food each meal, and even made a set of exercise equipment for him in bed. However, Chau Loi is very greedy, the boy often rummages around the house to find food, sometimes even digs through the trash, if he does not find the food, he will beat people or torture himself.
After a long time, the boy’s parents had to give up, it was better to let him be fat than to torture him directly. Also because of his obesity, the boy could not go to school or have friends because he could not go anywhere.
Parents also designed gym equipment in bed for their son to lose weight but failed.
The psychological change event made the boy embark on a weight loss journey
On April 20, 2014, Sun Liang, a young man from Rizhao, Shandong, who was known as “the fattest man in China” passed away at the age of 22 due to heart failure. It was this incident that made the boy Tu Chau Loi worry that the tragedy of Ton Luong would happen to him, so he called to ask doctor Tieu My for help because she knew that she had successfully helped an obese patient lose weight.
Doctor Tieu My received a call from Chau Loi for help and agreed to help the boy lose weight.
After learning about Chau Lei’s specific condition, doctor Tieu My decided to take her to the hospital for immediate treatment. At the hospital, in addition to giving a suitable weight loss program, the doctors also had to calculate the possible risks and find the reason why Chau Lei fell into obesity.
Because the process of examination and weight loss required commuting between departments, but Chau Loi could not climb the stairs, so the doctors had to design a separate stroller for the boy. It is also not easy to take blood for testing because the fat layer on Chau Lei’s body is too thick.
After many days of consultation, the doctors decided to offer gastric reduction surgery. But because Chau Lei’s body fat has severely compressed the airways and trachea, a hasty operation may cause respiratory arrest. Therefore, first let Chau Lei lose weight.
Chau Loi has a very strong appetite, a bowl of rice eats 2 pieces and has not been able to chew, always feeling hungry.
Through Xuzhou Lei’s diet for a few days at the hospital, doctors discovered the boy’s terrible appetite, other people can eat a bowl of rice for more than 10 minutes, but Chau Lei can eat 2 pieces are done, basically no need to chew. Another person can be full with a bowl of rice, but the boy even had to eat more than a dozen bowls. My stomach never seems to be full, when at home, I can spend almost half a day eating but always hungry.
This situation caused Dr. Tieu My quite a headache, how could she ask a child with such a terrible appetite to stop. Even convincing the boy to exercise was difficult, the doctor had to apply some forms of exercise right at his bed such as blowing bubbles to improve his cardiopulmonary function. Knowing that Chau Loi likes to swim, the doctor also encouraged him to help lose weight.
Soon, the boy’s weight dropped to 140kg but somehow gained again. It turned out that Chau Loi was sneaking around in the night. When Doctor Tieu My learned that he was very disappointed and blamed him, Chau Loi realized his mistake and promised to change.
Doctors checking the physical condition of Chau Lei had difficulty because the fat layer was too thick.
Reborn after surgery, dream of becoming a doctor
After that incident, Dr. Tieu Mei reviewed Chau Lei’s situation and felt that a boy could not eat that much, so he suspected a physical problem. Therefore, the hospital conducted gene-related tests and the results showed that the boy’s chromosome 15 had an abnormality, meaning that Chow Lei had a rare disease – Prader-Willi Syndrome.
The incidence of this disease is about 1/15,000, that is, only one in 15,000 children has it, which can be said to be extremely low. Once infected with this disease, the most obvious manifestation is not eating and drinking and this condition will become more and more serious with age.
Patients constantly crave food, weight also increases constantly, and can cause physical complications, severe cases can cause sudden death. Because of this disease, Chau Lei can’t control his appetite, after all, these are all controlled by genes, so it’s easy to understand how difficult it is to change.
The doctor discovered that Chau Lei had Prader-Willi syndrome, so he could not control his appetite.
Since then, the medical staff began to be more patient with Zhou Lei. Soon, with everyone’s cooperation, the boy’s weight was successfully reduced again.
As her physical condition improves, surgery may also be performed. On August 23, 2014, an operation that lasted more than 5 hours was performed, Chau Loi’s stomach pouch was shrunk to 1/20 of its original size and 2/3 of the small intestine was removed. . The surgery was a great success.
The next step is a post-surgery diet, in order to prevent the boy from being unable to control his appetite and having an accident after surgery, the hospital specially sent a nurse to watch 24 hours a day, and at the same time arranged 4 staff members. security guard at the door. In the end, Chau Lei safely passed the recovery phase.
After half a year, the boy’s weight has dropped to 100kg, and his appearance is more radiant than before. Chau Lei expressed his dream to also be a doctor in the future.
Chau Lei underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost 100kg.
Repeated the same mistakes and died at the age of 21
It was thought that after a long treatment process and the efforts of doctors and family, Chau Loi would completely change and life would open a new page.
But not long after being discharged from the hospital, Chau Loi soon ignored the doctor’s words and returned to the path of eating and drinking without his parents being able to watch over the boy anytime, anywhere. The boy’s parents are now helpless, not knowing how to make their son realize how serious it is if he continues to eat like crazy.
After a long time of struggling for his son, Chau Lei’s father fell ill and his mother had to take care of her husband, no longer having the strength to pay attention to her son.
Returning to a normal life, Chau Loi could not control his eating and then died at the age of 21.
Just like that, Xu Chau Lei every day takes the bed as a companion, eats and sleeps in bed, lives a rotten life. Such a life did not last long, in the middle of the night, Chau Lei suddenly had trouble breathing and was taken to the emergency room. After being treated by doctors, the boy was temporarily out of danger, but his condition was still not good, he could have respiratory failure at any time.
Chau Lei at this time was really scared, crying and begging the doctor: “I will definitely lose weight, help me, I don’t want to die yet”. But this time, he did not survive, finally passing away forever at the age of 21.
What is Prader Willi Syndrome?
Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder in which seven genes on chromosome 15 of the father or mother are deleted or absent. Children with PWS often experience physical, mental, and behavioral problems. One of the obvious signs is that there is a constant feeling of hunger right from the moment of birth, eating a lot, so you can’t control your weight, and eventually obesity.
In addition, Prader-Willi syndrome disrupts the function of an area in the brain called the hypothalamus. This region controls hunger and secretion of hormones that promote sexual growth and development. Once the thalamus does not function properly due to a defect in chromosome 15, it interferes with uncontrolled hunger and many other consequences such as delayed physical, mental, sexual and many other important functions. of body.
Complications arising from PWS . syndrome
– Increasing obesity
– Type 2 diabetes
– Heart disease and stroke
– Stop breathing while sleeping
– Complications of hypogonadism: This complication is caused by the body not producing enough sex hormones such as testosterone (male) and estrogen, progesterone (female). The consequences lead to infertility, causing diseases related to bones and joints such as osteoporosis and brittle bones.
– Behavioral problems: very diverse and interfere with the education of the family as well as the society, reduce the quality of life and many other disadvantages for the people involved.
Many people suffer from hunger at night, but because they are afraid of being fat, they do not dare to eat, but when they go to bed hungry, they feel uncomfortable and do not sleep well. So eating late or fasting and then sleeping is more harmful?
