910-pound woman rescued from apartment in a net attached to crane now hopes to lose weight

As her world shrank, Marie Bowman grew. With every loss - her son, her mother, her grandmother - the woman from Harlem in New York gained weight, becoming so large, she stopped being able to walk or even move her own legs. But it wasn’t until Friday, when Bowman felt ill enough to call 911, that she realized just how bad things had become. She was unable to make it out of her own front door. In order to get Bowman to the hospital for treatment, the FDNY had to use a crane to lift the 910-pound (65 stones, 412kg) woman through the window of her second-floor apartment.

It “was the first time I discovered I couldn’t get out of my apartment,” Bowman said. “I had grown too big. And that was frightening, because you don’t think, never once, that I wouldn’t be able to get through my door.” But now Bowman, 70, is ready for a second chance. “I am determined to get better. Weight reduction, exercise. It’s scary to know that you can pick up that kind of weight.” When emergency responders took Bowman to St. Luke’s Hospital on Friday, it was the first time she had been outside her apartment in nearly a year.
Firefighters had tried to get her outside by removing the door of her home, but even that wasn’t enough. “They tore out the frames and all the knocking and hammering, only to find I’m still wider than the frame,” she said before dissolving into tears. “Oh, God.” Emergency responders were then able to wrap a yellow netting around Bowman and manoeuvre her outside. Bowman had last left her home in September. She has been able to survive with the help of aides who visit her home daily, but says that as she got larger, they failed to help her.

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“It got to the point where the aides wouldn’t even try to lift me anymore,” she said. Doctors are trying to figure out just what kind of toll her weight has taken on her body. They’ve told her she likely has lymphedema, a condition where fluid fills the fat cells. Bowman is hoping that with proper medical help and a prescription diet, she will finally be able to lose weight and get her life back - before it’s too late. “I’m hoping that they can help and I’ll be able to walk again,” she said. The traumatic experience of having a crane lift her from her home was not without its silver lining, she said. “Feeling the sun on my face again never felt so good.”