has decided not to take action against Dr Sunderhaus but he is furious

The dangers of using the ‘fat’ word have been highlighted in the case of Dr. Earl Sunderhaus who was reported to an American state Medical Board after he told a patient that the reason she was sick was because of her weight. The North Carolina Medical Board has decided not to take action against Dr Sunderhaus but he is furious that they investigated him in the first place.

Dr Sunderhaus who is an eye doctor warned the patient that her weight was going to make her blind. He also pointed out that her weight increased the costs of her health care, was bad for her children and that it was likely to lead to her becoming a diabetic. He said that her eyesight problem was being aggravated because of her “thick thighs” and he allegedly poked her thigh.

Dr Sunderhaus who works at the Asheville Eye Center said that he wanted to sue the North Carolina Medical Board for not clearly stating that what he said and did was not in any way malpractice.  He said that while they had decided not to proceed against him, he had not decided to let the matter lie.

Doctors and nutritionists need to be extremely sensitive and careful when dealing with weight loss advice to very overweight people. Some doctors feel that by being firm and blunt they are likely to get the message about the dangers of obesity across to the patient, but in fact what often happens is that the patient feel victimised and threatened and refuses to listen. People require motivation and encouragement to lose weight and criticism rarely has the intended effect.  In fact many of these people say that when they are ridiculed and laughed at they tend to eat even more.

At Ukmedix News we reckon that Dr Sunderhaus probably had the best intentions in the world and genuinely wanted to help his patient but unfortunately she took his stern concern in the wrong way. She would probably do herself a big favour if she did actually follow the advice of Dr Sunderhaus and concentrated her energies on losing weight rather than complaining to medical malpractice committees.