Fat patients

This CNN story details hospitals struggling with fat patients:

Last year, patient care director Colleen Becker decided to check the numbers. She looked at a daily hospital census -- about one-third of the 900 patients weighed 350 pounds or more.

Startled, Becker checked another date, then another. The numbers were consistent. On some days, half the patients were obese. Some weighed 500 pounds or more. ...

The hospital is replacing many of its beds -- built to handle people weighing up to 350 pounds -- with beds for 500-pound patients.

"Three-hundred-fifty pounds is nowhere near what we need for beds now," said Art Kidrow, a nurse manager at Barnes-Jewish. "We've had
some 650-pounders up here."

Wow. I had no idea that so many fat people were clogging up hospitals. (This story is not on the Wikipedia list of April Fools hoaxes, so I guess it is serious.)