Paul Mason, once the world's fattest man, suing NHS for not helping him ... - New York Daily News

By Nina Mandell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, January 7th 2011, 12:01 PM

Paul Mason's lawsuit

Do you think the former fattest man has a case?

The world's fattest man wants to fight obesity: with a lawsuit.

Paul Mason, who once weighed almost 1,000 pounds, is blaming the NHS (Britain's public health system) for sending him to dietitians who merely told him to lose weight -- but didn't identify his problem as an eating disorder, British newspaper the Sun reported.

The former postal worker told the Sun that when he went to the NHS for help with his eating as early as 1996, he was told to "ride your bike more."

Years later, after tipping the scales at 900 pounds -- while scarfing down 20,000 calories a day -- he was sent to a dietitian before finally getting life-saving gastric surgery.

News of the lawsuit came shortly after the debut of his television show, "Britain's Fattest Man," which chronicled his journey toward gastric bypass surgery to more than 2.49 million viewers.

According to the show, Mason, 50, cost British taxpayers more than $3,000 a week before getting the surgery. That weekly estimate doesn't include the cost of firefighters knocking down the front of his home so they could get a forklift inside to get him out for hernia surgery in 2002 or the gastric surgery that cost around $50,000 in 2009.

Now a mere 518 pounds, Mason said he wants to take his case to court.

"I want to set a precedent so no one else has to get to the same size - and to put something back into society," he told the newspaper.

The NHS refused to comment, saying it had not been officially notified of the suit.

Mason also revealed in the interview that he had tried to kill himself three times due to the awful depression he suffered because of his weight. One attempt, an overdose of painkillers, failed because of his huge weight, the Sun reported.

While his weight may have cost him a lot of opportunities, Mason has certainly parlayed it into fame. In addition to "Britain's Fattest Man," he also appeared on a TLC special in the U.S. last May called "The World's Fattest Man."

nmandell@nydailynews.com