Obese people take more time to recover from accidents: Docs

“It takes more time to operate if the patient is overweight,” said Dr Samir Misra, senior faculty King George’s Medical University Trauma Centre.

LUCKNOW Being obese makes a person vulnerable to a number of diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, heart problems and stroke, underlined doctors on the occasion of the World Obesity Day (March 4) on Saturday. They added that obese people take more time to recover from accidents and have an increased chance of morbidity.

The problem of delayed response increases for middle-aged or elderly patients if they are obese. (PTI)

“An obese patient, when operated for road traffic or any other accident, takes more time to recover and be stable as compared to a non-obese person of the same age with similar injuries,” said Dr Samir Misra, senior faculty King George’s Medical University Trauma Centre. He added, “This is because an obese patient responds late to medicine administered as his normal physiology is compromised, in comparison to a non-obese patient.”

Explaining further, Professor Sandip Tiwari, chief medical superintendent of the trauma centre said, “Whether oxygen or medicine both will have delayed impact upon an obese patient.” He pointed out that Lucknow’s KGMU Trauma Centre admits over 350 serious cases in 24-hours and over 50 of them reach here with injuries every day.

The problem of delayed response increases for middle-aged or elderly patients if they are obese. “After the age of 50 years, immunity reduces. If a person of this age is obese, the risk during accidents becomes even higher,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general of the association of international doctors.

Adding to it, Dr Misra said, “It takes more time to operate if the patient is overweight, and there are chances of a surgeon getting less precision during the surgery due to excessive fat in the body despite their best efforts.”