Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

This man who weighs 705 lbs has been unable to undergo urgent weight-loss surgery as the health system is unable to provide a stretcher strong enough to carry his weight.

Franklin Jay Garcia, 40, lives in the city of Cartagena in the department of Bolivar in northern Colombia with his aunt and his cousin who help him carry out day-to-day tasks because his mobility is restricted as he weighs 320 kilogrammes (705 lbs).

He was diagnosed with morbid obesity when he was a child and he needs an urgent operation as he has an umbilical hernia of 15 centimetres (six inches).

Franklin Jay Garcia told local media: “I inherited it from my mother who died because of this terrible disease, I honestly do not want to be the next one”.

Reports said a doctor has told him that he needs an urgent sleeve gastrectomy, a surgical weight-loss procedure in which the stomach is reduced to about 15 percent of its original size.

The surgery has reportedly been delayed by more than five months as the city’s Nueva EPS health system, which operates throughout the country, is unable to provide a stretcher that can carry a person of his weight during the operation.

Franklin Jay Garcia said: “It seems that here in Cartagena there is not a stretcher that can carry my weight when they transfer me from the operating theatre to the UCI (intensive care unit) where I will be immobilised up to 10 or 15 days”.

Garcia’s aunt Daysi Jay also complained about the service at the hospital: “I have had to fight for him as there is no place to sit. I see how uncomfortable he is and I fear he might fall or something.”

Reports state that the Director of Nueva EPS health system has said they are trying to find a suitable stretcher and Mr Garcia could have his surgery in the second half of February.

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