S05.E11: James K's Story

[DuckyinKy]

On 4/9/2020 at 4:49 PM, Otter said:

Still wonder why he died in a hospital in Nashville.  I googled it, and it has an in-patient super comprehensive rehab program so maybe he was accepted there.  

 

He was in a Paducah hospital but they were not able to care for someone of his size so he was transferred to Nashville in an attempt to care for him. He was too far gone I guess. 

[Wanda]

I’m about to earn my gasoline soaked drawers. Food is hard to come by, at least up here in Massachusetts which has strict covid-19 guidelines in place. Maybe James was getting too mouthy for Lisa’s liking if she couldn’t supply enough to feed him and “took care of things”

[Tabbygirl521]

On 4/8/2020 at 12:58 PM, ThereButFor said:

But unless she held him down and stuffed the food in his mouth he had the ability to say no or just not eat what she brought in and offered him.  I suspect that's why APS didn't act when Dr. Now contacted them.

Personally I'd have got far more enjoyment from NOT ordering and giving him the fraahd rice and egg rolls and just letting him scream about it while wearing noise cancelling headphones.  

But he was an addict. It’s not as easy as just saying No. 

[DC Gal in VA]

On 4/8/2020 at 3:53 PM, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

I sympathize with James' children and grandchildren.

I sympathize with James' father, who went into debt to secure that medical transport to Houston.

I sympathize with the many, many healthcare workers (including Dr. Now and his staff) who tried to keep James alive for years and restore him to good health, even as James himself fought them every step of the way.

I sympathize with anyone who ever had to change waste-filled sheets or clean his filthy backside because his weight had rendered him unable to clean himself or attend to his personal needs.

I cannot sympathize with James himself. Even as slow and mentally ill as he was, he HAD to know that what he was eating was killing him. He had to understand, on some level, that he was eating an ungodly amount of food every single day. In the end, he just didn't care.

I cannot sympathize with Lisa, either. When a bedbound person eats themselves to death, the people who brought them that food must be blamed as well. She could have brought him 1,200 calories a day and no more. Hell, even 2-3,000 calories a day would have more than halved his weight and allowed him mobility. Instead, she kept killing him slowly with food. I pity the next victim she latches on to.

First time I've ever double quoted anyone here @Sir RaiderDuck OMS  but I just wanted to ask if you (or anyone else here) have any thoughts as to why James K and Lisa ever bothered to apply for and participate in this show not just once but twice?

There was never ever a moment when either one of them tried to comply with Dr. Now's directions. Was it all done as a deranged scam for money as in their failed GoFundMe campaign? Were they famewhores just hoping to turn their appearances into some kind of reality tv show? I've pondered this question many times and still can't figure out why they went through all of that.

TLC's motives were obvious: they definitely know a ratings grabbing shit show when they see it and they went for it. I would say shame on them but we all know that they are way beyond being shamed.

The only thing I can think of is that his poor dad reached out to M600PL in a last ditch effort to save his life; can't recall if it was mentioned who actually contacted the show. Even if that's true, why did they bother to participate?

 

[88Keys]

On 4/8/2020 at 4:26 PM, fonfereksglen said:

I would like to see one photo showing James just before he met her.  Or even five years before his show first aired.

Any photos we see are used as story line fodder and not always contemporaneous with the narration.

 

I've said before that I think, if he were a normal weight, he would be attractive.  I stand by that statement.  He has nice blue eyes and would probably have a nice face if it were slimmer and not perched atop an 800lb body.

16 hours ago, DC Gal in VA said:

First time I've ever double quoted anyone here @Sir RaiderDuck OMS  but I just wanted to ask if you (or anyone else here) have any thoughts as to why James K and Lisa ever bothered to apply for and participate in this show not just once but twice?

 

Money.  They get paid for being on the show.  

I also think they are both delusional.  They probably really did believe that if they went to Dr. Now he would give James magic surgery that would make everything OK.  We've seen a lot of patients like this.  I think neither James nor Lisa have much in the way of critical thinking skills.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think people apply for the show knowing they won't make much from the show (a little for moving, and that's about it), but they jump to the head of the line to see Dr. Now, and get in his program.   Also, since there had been multiple money begging sites in his name, I bet they thought they would get money from others too.    

There were other begging sites before the show too.   One had the largest donation from a local Mexican restaurant, and I guess he was there most frequent customer. 

Edited April 17, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[Twopper]

On 4/10/2020 at 2:14 AM, DC Gal in VA said:

Well @Otter I think this is the look you're referring to:

It has been a while since I saw his episodes.  I recalled her over-feeding him but I didn't recall her being that ugly--inside and out. 

I am not surprised at his death.  Just surprised it didn't happen a few years earlier.

I always thought he was the worst of the patients because his father had to take out a loan against his house to get him to Houston where he didn't accept the help he was offered.   Thqt said, I am not glad he has died.  I will go quote John Donne's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" to myself.  

 

[AZChristian]

5 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Also, since there had been multiple money begging sites in his name, I bet they thought they would get money from others too.  

I seem to recall that the physical therapist who was on the show with James K started a gofundme to buy some type of medical equipment he needed to help with his "exercise" needs.  May have been one of those devices to allow him to pull himself up to a sitting position, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I don't think they raised more than about 10% of the amount requested.  Anyone who ever watched James on 600-Pound Life knew that he wasn't going to exert ANY effort to help himself.

[auntjess]

10 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I seem to recall that the physical therapist who was on the show with James K started a gofundme to buy some type of medical equipment he needed to help with his "exercise" needs.  May have been one of those devices to allow him to pull himself up to a sitting position, but I'm not sure.

I've wondered on a lot of these people, why Dr. Now doesn't use those slings or hoists, on people who can't get on their feet by themselves.

[mamadrama]

On 4/17/2020 at 11:29 AM, 88Keys said:

I've said before that I think, if he were a normal weight, he would be attractive.  I stand by that statement.  He has nice blue eyes and would probably have a nice face if it were slimmer and not perched atop an 800lb body.

Money.  They get paid for being on the show.  

I also think they are both delusional.  They probably really did believe that if they went to Dr. Now he would give James magic surgery that would make everything OK.  We've seen a lot of patients like this.  I think neither James nor Lisa have much in the way of critical thinking skills.

The money they got from the show was remarkably small and with the way he ate probably only bought a month or two of food. Payment basically covers a little for moving (renting U-haul, food on the road) and first month's rent. What they may have been hoping for was celebrity perks from being on the show: GFM, other donations, gifts, television appearances, etc. They probably didn't count on people hating them. My second guess is that they, like many, thought Dr. Now would do immediate surgery and that after James could continue doing what he always does and watch as the pounds magically melt away...

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

On 4/16/2020 at 3:37 PM, DC Gal in VA said:

First time I've ever double quoted anyone here @Sir RaiderDuck OMS  but I just wanted to ask if you (or anyone else here) have any thoughts as to why James K and Lisa ever bothered to apply for and participate in this show not just once but twice?

There was never ever a moment when either one of them tried to comply with Dr. Now's directions. Was it all done as a deranged scam for money as in their failed GoFundMe campaign? Were they famewhores just hoping to turn their appearances into some kind of reality tv show? I've pondered this question many times and still can't figure out why they went through all of that.

TLC's motives were obvious: they definitely know a ratings grabbing shit show when they see it and they went for it. I would say shame on them but we all know that they are way beyond being shamed.

The only thing I can think of is that his poor dad reached out to M600PL in a last ditch effort to save his life; can't recall if it was mentioned who actually contacted the show. Even if that's true, why did they bother to participate?

 

On 5/7/2020 at 8:45 AM, mamadrama said:

...they, like many, thought Dr. Now would do immediate surgery and that after James could continue doing what he always does and watch as the pounds magically melt away...

I think it was a combination of wanting to be on TV and wanting to get better but refusing to follow through on anything that might cause him the least bit of discomfort. I think James saw Subway's Jared on TV and wanted to be him without realizing that Jared Fogle undertook a massive amount of work to reduce his weight (such as walking for multiple hours every day and eating one of those Subway subs as more or less his only food on the days he had one). And even at Jared's heaviest, he weighed a little more than 1/2 of James' weight.

James and Lisa did take after Jared Fogle in one way, however: they were both terrible people. James cheated for years with a married Lisa, then let that woman's husband raise his (James') children thinking they were his own. Lisa, meanwhile, engineered James' death from obesity whilst making him into a reality TV laughingstock. None of this approaches what Jared did, of course.

[CrazyInAlabama]

The poundticipants get very little relocation, or other money from the producers, less than $5,000 last time I heard.   I think James K and Lisa really thought he would immediately get surgery, and it would be the magic bullet.     He was one of the most stubborn poundticipants, and Lisa showed exactly who she was when she was smuggling food to him in the hospital, and he gained.    She was no prisoner, she left the husband, and moved to another state, and returned back to be with James.   We only have Lisa's word that two of her kids were James, and not her husband's unless they did a DNA test and didn't mention that proof.         I felt sorry for Lisa during the initial episode, but certainly didn't in the follow up WATN where she was smuggling massive amounts of food into his hospital room.    Her smirk when Dr. Now called her on it told me everything I needed to know about their sick relationship.     

[Calamity Jane]

I just watched this one today, and I’m kind of confused. Were  those two delusional?  On drugs?  Mentally deficient? Suffering from  folie à deux? All of those plus more???  Each time it was as if the previous times hadn’t happened, that he couldn’t have gained weight because he didn’t eat anything,that Lisa didn’t haul in 10,000 calories a day.  Even after she admitted she’d brought food into the hospital. They just floored me.  

It is sad that he got himself on the path to destruction, it is sad that his wife was so clueless/spineless/malicious as to feed him to death, but if going into heart failure wasn’t enough to jolt him out of his idiocy, his death was bound to come sooner than later. As it is, he lasted three years longer than seemed likely at the end of the episode. 

It all brings back a thought I’ve had a few times watching this show. Some of these folks need much, much more intervention. Nutritionist to knock the facts about calories minto them, PT every day, someone to explain that raising your arms up ten times isn’t going to burn any calories to speak of, a platinum level psychotherapist, a coach, a minder, and perhaps a camera to catch the Lisas sneaking food in. When they’ve shown repeatedly that they won’t follow the plan, and his life is in imminent danger, the plan has to change. So much doing the same thing, expecting a different result - on both sides!

Well, his struggles are done now. Such a sad, sad story.