Some say, “It’s my body, I’m not troubling anyone.”
But for the nurses who spend entire shifts pulling, lifting, and cleaning patients who weigh more than 140kg, the reality couldn’t be more different.
Recently, a nurse named Mimi Bukhari took to Facebook to share a raw and eye-opening account of what it’s like caring for an obese patient, an experience that highlights the hidden burden faced by healthcare workers every day.
When one patient weighs as much as three nurses
According to Mimi, the patient’s weight was almost the combined weight of three nurses working the same night shift. This made even the simplest tasks, like changing diapers or adjusting the patient’s position on the bed, an exhausting ordeal.
“There was a patient who weighed more than 140kg, equivalent to the combined weight of us three night-shift nurses.
“Imagine how the three of us had to move the body just to change a diaper. Even pulling the body slightly upward required an enormous amount of strength, just to make sure the patient was comfortable,” she wrote.
Mimi went on to describe how the physical toll often lingers well beyond the shift.
The exhaustion was indescribable; our bodies ached until morning. So when people say, ‘Even if someone weighs over 100kg, it doesn’t trouble anyone else,’ the reality is we are the ones carrying that burden.”
For bedridden patients, nurses are expected to handle everything, from cleaning their bodies to trimming their nails.
In one case, Mimi said the patient’s nails were so long and curved that they “looked like they could dig soil.”
Her post was not meant to shame patients but to highlight an overlooked truth: obesity doesn’t just put the patient at risk, it also increases the strain on the very people tasked with caring for them.
As Mimi herself admitted, witnessing the struggles of obese patients has made her reflect on her own health: “Even I started to feel scared as I gained more weight myself.”
