New Zealand: Expats fat wife refused visa 

November 20th, 2007


A British man, Richie Trezise, who moved to New Zealand has been told by officials that his wife is too fat to join him according to a report from the Daily Telegraph. His wife, Rowan, 33, a photographer, has been battling for months to shed the pounds so they can be reunited and live Down Under but has so far been unable to overcome New Zealands weight regulations.

Mr Trezise, who moved to Auckland in September after shedding two inches from his waist on a crash diet, said that if his wife was not allowed to come out by Christmas they would abandon the idea of emigrating.

His employer-backed skills visa was initially rejected by immigration officials when they discovered that his body mass index, or BMI, was 42, making him morbidly obese under New Zealand regulations.

BMI measures a persons weight in relation to their height. Anything over 25 is regarded as overweight, and 30 or above is obese.

Mr Trezise, a submarine cable specialist and a former soldier, said: My doctor laughed at me. He said hed never seen anything more ridiculous in his whole life. He said not every overweight person is unhealthy or unfit.

The idea was that we were going to change our lifestyle totally and get outdoors and on mountain bikes and all sorts of activities.

The couple, who both lived in Barry, Wales, were all set for a new life after Mr Trezise was headhunted by New Zealands Telecom.

New Zealand is critically short of skilled workers, and many large firms are intensively recruiting in Britain.

Mr Trezise was recruited to supervise the Southern Cross Cable, which links New Zealand with Australia and the west coast of the United States. He is one of only four highly qualified specialist technicians working on the improvement of the cable.

The New Zealand Immigration Service said it did not know how many people were denied entry to the country because of high BMI readings.

However, comments posted on the Emigrate New Zealand website reveal that many people have been turned down after medical tests revealed that they were obese.

Mr Trezise has private health care in New Zealand and his employer, Telecom, has a gym membership scheme.

"Nonstopdrivel" wrote:

2/9: 363.2

Back to pinhead land, I am. Foster gets back to 29.

"Wade" wrote:

Obese woman gives birth in Romania 

By ALINA WOLFE MURRAY, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 18, 8:19 pm ET

[img_r]http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100219/capt.51db3526c7814d5f99226770c23e6016.aptopix_romania_obese_mom_xvg201.jpg?x=400&y=286&q=85&sig=vTw5UI_psSVTorxxsqaR9g--[/img_r]BUCHAREST, Romania A 25-year-old woman weighing 528 pounds (240 kilograms) gave birth to her first baby on Thursday in what one expert called a rare and risky case. "I wanted this child with all my heart, whatever the sacrifice," the Adevarul newspaper quoted the mother, Victoria Lacatus, as saying.

Her healthy baby girl, born by cesarean section, weighed 6.4 pounds (2.9 kilograms), said Bogdan Popescu, a spokesman at Bucharest University Emergency Hospital, which is equipped to treat obese people.

Dr. Daghni Rasasingham, of Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in London, said the case was rare, given the mother's weight and height of 5.25 feet (1.6 meters), and that she would be at risk of clots, diabetes, post-birth bleeding and infection.

Popescu said Lacatus was being carefully monitored because she suffers from a thyroid problem and post-surgery complications could develop because of her morbid obesity.

Florin Costandache, who helped perform the operation, said: "It was a real challenge because she needed four times the anesthetic a normal person needs."

The chief surgeon, obstetrician Valeriu Horhoianu, said at least 10 obese women have given birth at the Bucharest hospital, but they all weighed less than 352 pounds (160 kilograms).

Nicolae Cernea, a doctor from the southern city of Craiova where Lacatus was hospitalized for a month before delivery said her case was unique in Romania.

In August 2008, a heavier obese woman 560-pound (255-kilogram) Leanne Salt gave birth to triplets in Britain.

"Nonstopdrivel" wrote: