S04.E12: Sean's Story

[Chalby]

4 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I've never personally seen a camper with a doorway that would accommodate one of the folks on this show . . . Unless it was a "toy hauler" with a big door on the back for things like four-wheelers. Ambulance folks seem to have problems getting these folks through standard house doorways, which are larger than camper doors.

True enough, I forgot about 'doors'. Big sad sigh...

15 hours ago, ThereButFor said:

This post was from his original show, he’s had two follow ups so a lot of the later things were discussed on different threads.  No reason you would have known unless you had seen those episodes or searched out those discussions!

Thank you! I was unaware of other episodes - time to catch up.

[Hellga]

OMFG.  I have seen the follow-up but this is the first time I am seeing this episode.  I don't think I can watch it tonight on top of the one I already watched today, but I will record it.  It is already shaping up to be really, really bad even if I haven't seen the follow-up.  Everything about this guy is either horrible or horrifying. 

[DuckyinKy]

Sean passed away today. His father announced  it. 

[Ellie Godfrey]

23 minutes ago, DuckyinKy said:

Sean passed away today. His father announced  it. 

Very sad. I think he was doomed from early on. His mother sabotaged his maturity every chance she got and when she died, he couldn't do anything for himself. 29 is insanely young to die.

[stormy]

I felt so bad for Sean. At the end of the episode, he was so alone. He was like a ship in the middle of the ocean without a sail.

RIP

[mmecorday]

This guy was doomed. I'm really surprised he lived as long as he did. I'm not sure why measures were not taken to remove him from his mother's home because that was clearly contributing to his issues with eating, not to mention just plain weird. He sat around all day, naked, while his mother fed him. RIP, Sean. I hope the afterlife is better than than your time in hell on earth.

[7EasyPayments]

3 hours ago, DuckyinKy said:

Sean passed away today. His father announced  it. 

RIP

I re-watched his episode last week, and he seemed like a sweet man trapped in an awful prison.

When I Googled and learned of his Mother's death, I had an awful premonition.

Sean may you truly rest in peace.    ❤️

[aliya]

3 hours ago, DuckyinKy said:

Sean passed away today. His father announced  it. 

That's too bad. I actually watched his show a couple of times last week (familiarity and lack of anything on TV while I worked on the computer). I wonder if the surgery just came too late for him, or if he gained back a lot of the weight.  So young, and never really lived his own life.

eta - I see he died from an infection. It doesn't take much at that size.

Edited February 20, 2019 by aliya

[Concerned]

Sean is the fifth person to die after being featured on this show. Instead of an update, they need to do an in memorium

[ChicksDigScars]

11 hours ago, Concerned said:

Sean is the fifth person to die after being featured on this show. Instead of an update, they need to do an in memorium

Who were the others? I do remember one African American lady passing away last year. She was actually one of the nicer subjects of this show. 

[libgirl2]

8 minutes ago, ChicksDigScars said:

Who were the others? I do remember one African American lady passing away last year. She was actually one of the nicer subjects of this show. 

I think that was Lisa and she wasn't one of the nicer ones on the show if I am remembering correctly. 

[Concerned]

Sean Milliken, Lisa Fleming, LB Bonner, Robert Buchel, Henry Foote. There may have been others who died quietly.

[CousinOliver]

11 hours ago, Concerned said:

Sean is the fifth person to die after being featured on this show. Instead of an update, they need to do an in memorium

Given the condition many of the participants are in when they meet Dr Now, I’m surprised it’s not more. 

[DC Gal in VA]

Meaning no disrespect to anyone here, but I just wanted to clarify that all of the five subjects from this show that died did not die because of their weight.

• Sean Milliken, Lisa Fleming and, Robert Buchel all died of complications due to their continued super morbid obesity;
• Henry Foote (I have seen the spelling of his last name as Foots as well) sadly died in a traffic accident after he lost 500 pounds, down from an original weight of 750 pounds. He was an absolute success story, getting married to the love of his life and said he just wanted to celebrate each day joyfully; an absolute sweet heart of a man;
• L.B. Bonner committed suicide. There has never been anything written about his weight having anything to do with that tragedy. Weight loss wise, he was another success story who didn't even let the loss of a leg stop him. What was so sad was that he seemed to be on his way to a bright future before he took his life. A really lovely man.

I kept seeing all five of these individuals being grouped together and it just didn't seem fair that Henry Foote and L.B. Bonner--both weight loss success stories--being mentioned in league with the other, unfortunately, weight loss failures.

Edited February 20, 2019 by DC Gal in VA
Additional comments.

[fonfereksglen]

3 minutes ago, DC Gal in VA said:

Meaning no disrespect, but I just wanted to clarify that all of the five subjects from this show that died did not die because of their weight.

• Sean Milliken, Lisa Fleming and, Robert Buchel all died of complications due to their continued super morbid obesity;
• Henry Foote (I have seen the spelling of his last name as Foots as well) sadly died in a traffic accident after he lost 500 pounds, down from an original weight of 750 pounds. He was an absolute success story, getting married to the love of his life and said he just wanted to celebrate each day joyfully; an absolute sweet heart of a man;
• L.B. Bonner committed suicide. There has never been anything written about his weight having anything to do with that tragedy. Weight loss wise, he was another success story who didn't even let the loss of a leg stop him. What was so sad was that he seemed to be on his way to a bright future before he took his life. A really lovely man.

I kept seeing all five of these individuals being grouped together and it just didn't seem fair that Henry Foote and L.B. Bonner--both weight loss success stories--being mentioned in league with the other, unfortunately, weight loss failures.

Well put.  Especially about Henry.  He was older than most patients, with other serious medical issues, yet he was a major success in his weight loss.  

[DC Gal in VA]

10 minutes ago, fonfereksglen said:

Well put.  Especially about Henry.  He was older than most patients, with other serious medical issues, yet he was a major success in his weight loss.  

Thanks fonfereksglen. Guess I am just getting a bit persnickety in my old age! 😊

[Concerned]

Suicide can be obesity related. A kid from Too Fat for 15 died in a murder suicide with his mother. Foots has difficulty recovering from his accident because his body was weakened. Others died of infection or heart attack. There are many ways to obesity kills, but the 20 percent mortality rate for participants on this show is pretty telling. The number who failed to lose weight or regained it, developed another addiction, are permanently disabled, or who have collapsed into depression exceeds 50 percent. Given a longer time span, the mortality rate will be very high.

[aliya]

To clarify - my understanding is that Henry had a heart attack while driving his airport shuttle, and then died. He also killed a woman as he lost control of the shuttle.

I'm glad he got married to Miss Kirk and had some happiness. Sadly, though, prolonged super obesity is bound to have some continuing effects, even after the  surgery. 

[cmpbl]

So sad to hear about Sean. Here's the story 

https://popculture.com/reality-tv/2019/02/19/my-600-lb-life-tlc-issues-statement-sean-millikens-death/

Spoiler

[DC Gal in VA]

4 minutes ago, Concerned said:

Suicide can be obesity related. A kid from Too Fat for 15 died in a murder suicide with his mother. Foots has difficulty recovering from his accident because his body was weakened. Others died of infection or heart attack. There are many ways to obesity kills, but the 20 percent mortality rate for participants on this show is pretty telling. The number who failed to lose weight or regained it, developed another addiction, are permanently disabled, or who have collapsed into depression exceeds 50 percent. Given a longer time span, the mortality rate will be very high.

Yes, there are many reasons people commit suicide. However, I am speaking of documented reasons for their deaths and I simply haven't read or heard anything that specifies that either Henry Foote or L.B. Bonner died specifically because of anything to do with their weight loss.

Henry Foote lost and maintained his weight loss of 500 pounds over a seven year period. He died in an unfortunate traffic accident long after his surgery and weight loss and, let's face it, people of all sizes die in traffic accidents every day, but I would definitely be interested in any documented information that his death was directly related to his weight loss history.

All of the reports I've read about L.B. Bonner's suicide contain a lot of speculations but even his own loved ones had no answers and, as far as I know, he left no suicide note.

I think it's really just a quirk of human nature to find one major thing a group of people have in common and then conflate them. Reminds me of a real pet peeve of mine when some doctors see an overweight patient for the first time and don't bother to be as thorough with them as a normal weight patient. Everything is assumed to be weight related, especially when it comes to women. ***steps off soapbox*** ☺

[DC Gal in VA]

17 minutes ago, aliya said:

To clarify - my understanding is that Henry had a heart attack while driving his airport shuttle, and then died. He also killed a woman as he lost control of the shuttle.

I'm glad he got married to Miss Kirk and had some happiness. Sadly, though, prolonged super obesity is bound to have some continuing effects, even after the  surgery. 

Hi aliya. I hadn't read anything about Henry having a heart attack. What I have read is that he lost control of the bus shuttle he was driving and that witnesses said that appeared to have passed out right before the accident. Additionally, from what I've read, there was a lot of speculation about what may have caused this and that the authorities in Houston said that the accident was still under investigation. Here's a link to one of the stories, reported in 2012, about that incident:

https://www.click2houston.com/news/shuttle-bus-crash-victim-identified

If you or anyone else has a more recent report, please share.

[Concerned]

Henry Foots was 54 when he died.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

******** MOD NOTE *********

We are getting far afield from Sean's story.  If you want to discuss all or several poundticipants, let's move to the all episodes thread.  If it's not show-specific, head on over to small talk.  

*******************************

[ChicksDigScars]

On 2/20/2019 at 11:51 AM, libgirl2 said:

I think that was Lisa and she wasn't one of the nicer ones on the show if I am remembering correctly. 

I don't think Lisa is the one I was remembering. Now that I think of it, I don't think it was My 600-lb Life, but one of the other one timer shows about obesity that TLC ran before My 600-lb Life became a hit. 

[CousinOliver]

1 hour ago, ChicksDigScars said:

I don't think Lisa is the one I was remembering. Now that I think of it, I don't think it was My 600-lb Life, but one of the other one timer shows about obesity that TLC ran before My 600-lb Life became a hit. 

You could be thinking of Renee Williams, who died during the filming of Half Ton Mom.  She did come across as very likable, if I recall correctly.   I’m not sure she was African American, though she was a Dr Now patient. 

Also, Dominique LaNoise passed while filming (or soon after filming) a follow up to 600 lb Mom.  Her shows were also specials on TLC, but she was in Miami and not affiliated with Dr Now.  Dominique was Haitian, I believe. 

[suev3333]

R.I.P.  Sean......but I'm not real surprised.  He was suffering so much mentally, my heart ached for him, being all alone like that. That said,  I think he probably wanted to die.  So sad 😪

[suev3333]

On 2/20/2019 at 12:25 AM, Concerned said:

Sean is the fifth person to die after being featured on this show. Instead of an update, they need to do an in memorium

Unfortunately food addiction is just as deadly as any other addiction.   So sad...

[parrotfeathers]

On 2/20/2019 at 1:06 PM, cmpbl said:

So sad to hear about Sean. Here's the story 

https://popculture.com/reality-tv/2019/02/19/my-600-lb-life-tlc-issues-statement-sean-millikens-death/

  Reveal spoiler

I saw the last segment about Sean this morning.  it was incredibly sad.  He really was lost without his mother.  I guess she never thought she would die and leave him helpless.  Like Dr. Now said, she wasn't doing him any favors by not encouraging his independence.

Edited February 26, 2019 by parrotfeathers

[ChicksDigScars]

On 2/22/2019 at 5:41 PM, CousinOliver said:

Also, Dominique LaNoise passed while filming (or soon after filming) a follow up to 600 lb Mom.  Her shows were also specials on TLC, but she was in Miami and not affiliated with Dr Now.  Dominique was Haitian, I believe. 

THAT'S THE ONE. It was Dominque that I was thinking of. THANK YOU. It's been bugging me. The more I thought about it, the more Florida popped into my head, too. 

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, ChicksDigScars said:

THAT'S THE ONE. It was Dominque that I was thinking of. THANK YOU. It's been bugging me. The more I thought about it, the more Florida popped into my head, too. 

she was the one who sprinkled weight loss powder on her food. Its like so many of the people on this show, the surgery is a quick fix, just like a powder. When they find out they actually have to work hard, they check out. 

[toodles]

Sean's episode was on again.  Knowing the ultimate outcome makes it just tragic.  All throughout the episode Dr.Now told him that he will die if he doesn't change.  Not to be overly dramatic, but it's a slow suicide by food.  

Everyone that applies for this show should watch this episode.  If you think Dr. Now is just trying to scare you and you're the exception, watch again.

[Twopper]

On 3/21/2019 at 9:00 AM, toodles said:

Sean's episode was on again.  Knowing the ultimate outcome makes it just tragic.  All throughout the episode Dr.Now told him that he will die if he doesn't change.  Not to be overly dramatic, but it's a slow suicide by food.  

Everyone that applies for this show should watch this episode.  If you think Dr. Now is just trying to scare you and you're the exception, watch again.

The problem for me with their watching this episode or the James K ones is that it would be so easy for them to think "I am in such better shape that this will never happen to me." because most of them are delusional and in denial about the bad shape they are in.

I do think a few episodes of the really awful ones plus a few episodes of successful people (like Britanny and the twins Kandi and Brandi) plus some of people who barely muddle thru and a few that quit (Cynthia) should be required watching.  

Btw,  I had grapes at lunch again today😂

[Ralphster]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:28 PM, 7EasyPayments said:

RIP

I re-watched his episode last week, and he seemed like a sweet man trapped in an awful prison.

When I Googled and learned of his Mother's death, I had an awful premonition.

Sean may you truly rest in peace.    ❤️

I didn't think he seemed sweet at all. Quite the opposite; he seemed snarling when he didn't get his way, kept making snide remarks and snide/rude facial expressions, and was passive-aggressive in his attempts to control people. I am 100% convinced that his "accident" when he first visited Dr. Now was done on purpose because he was angry about having to sit up in a wheelchair and had little control over the situation. Sean was pretty animalistic. I would have been afraid to be near him.

[auntjess]

I'm rewatching this tonight, as I hadn't seen his first one in a long time.
Dr, Now is giving them all the warnings, and he and mom are ignoring them.

 

[Ralphster]

On 9/14/2020 at 8:25 PM, auntjess said:

I'm rewatching this tonight, as I hadn't seen his first one in a long time.
Dr, Now is giving them all the warnings, and he and mom are ignoring them.

 

Conversely, Sean and his mother are giving Dr. Now all the warning signs of being seriously mentally ill and in need of intensive help, and he is ignoring them.