500 pound German dies after refusing to use elephant X-ray machine

A 36-stone German man has died after refusing to be X-rayed using a machine for elephants at a zoo. Thomas Lessmann, 51, was too overweight to be scanned with normal machinery at a hospital. But he found the thought of being X-rayed on a giant machine at Hamburg Zoo too humiliating.

He had been suffering for months from dizziness and perpetual tiredness that doctors were convinced was due to his enormous girth.

The University Clinic at Eppendorf, near Hamburg, told Mr Lessmann's GP that he was too large to fit into its machine. Doctors spoke with Hamburg Zoo and lined him up for a scan under the apparatus used for elephants, rhinos and hippos.


Photo from here.

But his wife Petra, 41, said; "He felt so ashamed when they said he would have to go to the zoo to be X-rayed. He simply refused." Thirteen days later he was dead. The exact cause of his death is yet been determined.

"We understand that it may be irritating for patients to be turned over to a veterinary machine," said Christine Jaehn, a spokesman for the clinic.

"But the simple fact is that he weighed 230 kilos and our X-ray machine can only cope with people up to 200kg"