Anorexic Teen Hid Weights in Clothes to Appear Heavier
A recent investigation in the United Kingdom, concerning an anorexic teen who tragically died 9 years ago, has found that the teen hid weights in her clothing to fool the school nurse into thinking she was heavier.
Emma Carpenter, just 17 at the time of her death due to anorexia, appears to have lost more than a stone (14 pounds) in the week just before she died. Her organs failed her and she passed away just three days before Christmas in 2006 with a body mass index of only 10.5. Emma had battled anorexia for three years prior and was being monitored by the nurses at her school. The nurses would weigh Emma often, but appear to have been fooled by the weights she hid in her clothing before being weighed.
When questioned, the nurses both expressed that with Emma’s anorexic condition, she should have been hospitalized sooner. Emma was only hospitalized 10 days before her death. Doctors at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham claim that she would not have died if she had been referred to hospital sooner. Dr. Timothy Bowling, a consultant gastroenterologist at Nottingham Universities Hospital Trust, said: “(Anorexic) Patients who come to me with a BMI of between 12 and 13 are normally saveable. When they come to me with BMIs of nines and 10s then I am really breaking sweat. Had I got Emma when she had a BMI of 12 plus, I believe, on the balance of probability, she would have survived.”
Emma’s grandmother was also concerned about her anorexia at the time just before her passing. She decided to “strip” weigh her (making her remove all of her clothing) and found that her weight had dropped 16 pounds since the last time she had weighed her. The hearing at Nottingham Coroner’s Court is still continuing.
Anorexia is a devastating emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. Many individuals, both girls and boys, and women and men suffer from this debilitating disease. Instilling healthy body image and being aware of those we love can help prevent these damaging thought patterns that drive individuals to starve themselves (many to death) by becoming anorexic.