A Rhode Island man’s weight is a death sentence, and his father says he’s now nearing that fate after the hospital that was treating the 33-year-old kicked him out.
Steven Assanti says he is addicted to food and has been enrolled in a weight loss program at Rhode Island Hospital for the past 80 days. He says he’s lost more than 20 pounds.
Assanti says he suffers from a food addiction that has seen his weight balloon up to 778 pounds, or 353 kilograms.
“It’s an addiction, and I realize that. And it’s a disease,” Assanti told NBC 10 News in Rhode Island.
For nearly four months, Assanti was a patient at Rhode Island Hospital as he struggled to get his weight under control. He says the plan was to get his weight down to a more manageable level before considering surgery.
“I was supposed to stay there and lose all my weight and get down to 550 to get the gastric bypass,” said Assanti. “That was their plan.”
But pizza didn’t fit into that plan. Assanti alleges it was his call to get a pizza delivery that prompted the health facility to ask him to leave.
Representatives for Rhode Island Hospital refused to discuss any aspects of Assanti’s condition or his treatment at the hospital with local media in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Assanti says since leaving the hospital he has been living out of the truck of his father’s SUV. His father Steven Veillette told CBS News that unless Assanti gets help quickly, he worries he’ll lose his son.
“If he comes home and I do get him up the stairs somehow, someway he’s going to go right back to his eating habits,” Veillette said. “I just don’t know who to turn to. I called everybody, everybody you can think of in the state of Rhode Island and nobody seems to be [able to] help me.”
According to AWM:
Steven later went on to join the show “My 600-lb Life” and proved to be a controversial star on the program. He would throw temper tantrums and secretly order pizzas despite doctor’s orders. He also abused painkiller medications and would go on YouTube rants earning him a notorious status online.
After getting booted from the hospital, Steven managed to join the television show and lose some weight. But his struggle was not easy. Fortunately, he did not die as his father had worried.
Now he boasts of having a girlfriend. And two weeks after Valentine’s Day in 2018, he shared on Facebook:
“Good morning friends and to the best girlfriend in the world Stephanie Sanger. I love you baby with my soul n heart. I want everyone to continue to know you’re the reason why I look forward to my future, our future and I hope it grows bigger, you’re the best baby real talk. Keepin’ ten toes down fellas. Have a good day!”
Fortunately, Steven was able to go from booted out of the hospital to deep in love.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, NBC 10 News