Juan Pedro Franco, 41, considered the most obese man in the world, died in Mexico on Christmas Eve. While being treated in a hospital in Aguascalientes state, he died after his condition rapidly worsened following a kidney infection. His death was confirmed by the doctor José Antonio Castaneda, reports the ‘Daily Mail’. The specialist explained that in the days before his death Franco had developed systemic complications. At the peak of his weight the man had reached almost 600 kilos, but in recent years he had managed to lose about half of that.
In the Guinness Book of Records in 2017
Franco’s extraordinary weight first caught the world’s attention in 2017, when the Guinness Book of World Records recognized him as the world’s most obese living person. He weighed over 590kg and was mostly bedridden after years of extreme obesity that left him unable to move independently. In the same year he undertook an intensive and carefully monitored medical program with Dr. Castaneda: a Mediterranean diet rich in fruit and vegetables and then two bariatric surgeries, a sleeve gastrectomy and subsequently a gastric bypass. Thanks to the combined treatment he was able to drastically reduce his weight, almost halving it, and after years of mobility he was able to walk again. An improvement that according to doctors had reduced the risk of complications related to diabetes and cardiovascular fatigue, although Franco remained vulnerable due to his long history of obesity. In 2020 the man had also survived Covid, despite being classified as extremely high risk by virtue of his medical history.
His story helped raise awareness of the nature of obesity
The doctor who followed him described the case as one of the most complex ever treated, highlighting how the patient’s candor about his difficulties had helped raise awareness of the nature of obesity: a chronic disease that requires compassionate, long-term medical care. “My body went its own way without any control,” Franco said. “I tried to diet day after day, but nothing worked, I was desperate,” he said. The weight loss program had heartened him: “Just being able to lift your arms, get up every day, stand up to drink a glass of water or go to the bathroom, makes you feel great. It’s fantastic to be able to move more and be more self-sufficient,” he declared.
The precedents
Franco’s death brings to mind other well-known stories of extreme obesity that ended in fatal complications. Among the most famous – recalls the English newspaper – that of the American Jon Brower Minnoch, who once weighed around 600 kg and held the record for the heaviest person ever documented. Minnoch died in 1983, also 41, after suffering heart and respiratory failure following years of serious health complications. Another case that has hit the news is that of Manuel Uribe, also Mexican, who weighed over 550 kg. Thanks to medical intervention, he managed to lose a lot of weight, but he died in 2014 at the age of 48 from liver failure linked to a chronic obesity-related disease.
