Gerrard Kaonga
A woman suffered a gruesome and tragic death after her body was fused to a couch, leaving the Sheriff’s office to say they had no warning for ‘something like this’.
39-year-old Gayle Laverne Grinds was 4ft 10' woman who weighed more than 34st, and died on August 11, 2004. But before she passed away, medics had spent six hours trying to separate her skin from her couch.
According to a report by The Sun, the Florida woman couldn’t even get up to go the bathroom and had spent an estimated six years sitting down.
It all started when Grinds had broken one of her legs in the 90s. Not long after the first fracture had healed, she unfortunately broke her leg again.
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This ultimately negatively impacted her mental health and resulted in her staying on the sofa to avoid further damage. She reportedly took solace in food and eventually became morbidly obese by sitting and eating at her apartment in Stuart, Florida.
Herman Thomas, who lived with Gayle in the apartment said: "I tried to take care of her the best I could. I tried to get her to get up, but it wouldn't do no good.
“I wish I could have pulled her off the couch, but she wouldn't let me."
Eventually, when concerned about her overall health as Grinds had begun to have difficulty breathing, her brother called emergency services.
The team, which included 12 firefighters, brought a custom-built wooden stretcher to lift Grinds and the couch out of the apartment. They had no other option but to use a trailer attached to a pick-up truck to transport her to the hospital.
Grinds reportedly died at 3:12 am local time, still attached to the couch, according to officials.
At the time, Martin County Sheriff's Sergeant Jenell Atlas issued a statement about Grinds death.
She said that her death was not being treated as suspicious due to the autopsy revealing that she was morbidly obese. However, she did admit the case was particularly strange and that investigators would look into the possibility of negligence related to her care and death.
He said: "We do have an investigation started because the circumstances surrounding her death are so unusual.
"We are used to going to people's houses when things are at their worst... and that's fine, we're trained for it. But there is no warning for something like this."