A 44-year-old British native said to be the fattest man in the world died from pneumonia after a long battle with his weight, the U.K.'s Mirror reported last Friday.
Keith Martin, who weighed 980 pounds at his heaviest, died eight months after he underwent a gastric sleeve surgery where three-quarters of his stomach was removed. The west London native lived on 20,000 calories a day by eating six fried eggs for breakfast, Chinese takeout, pizzas, McDonald's and other fast food.
Martin also consumed two liters of soda and over three liters of coffee a day, the Mirror reported. He spent years confined to his bed being tended to by his sisters. He didn't leave his house for a decade, which he said was due to depression brought on by the death of his mother, also from pneumonia, when he was 16.
"I started eating to ease the pain and, before I knew it, I was binging every time something upset me," Martin said in 2012, the newspaper reported. "I've always been depressed. I am an agoraphobic -- I'm afraid of public places -- but I was never treated.
"I just want to be happy, without needing food to make me happy."
In 2013, Martin switched to a daily 2,000 calorie diet and lost 350 pounds to qualify for the gastric procedure. The operation was a success, but he discharged himself from the hospital after just one week against the advice of his doctors, the Mirror reported. Martin said he was homesick.
Martin was back in the hospital last October because of dehydration and septic shock. Two weeks later, he contracted pneumonia and was kept in the hospital until February 2014. By that time he weighed 546 pounds.
Dr. Kesava Mannur, who performed Martin's gastric surgery, said had Martin lived, he would have continued losing weight and would have been able to walk again. Mannur believes such surgeries should be offered through the National Health Service to help others like his patient.
"Bariatric surgery can be a very good thing for people who need it," Mannur said according to the Mirror. "We can't ignore they are here and they need help."
