Obese man forklifted to hospital

Khalid Mohsin Shaeri was forklifted out of his house after Saudi King Abdullah paid for a specially-equipped plane to take him to hospital.Photo: The Telegraph

A Saudi Arabian man who officials say weighs 1,345 pounds has been fork-lifted out of his house on the orders of the king for treatment.
Saudi King Abdullah paid for a specially-equipped plane to take Khalid Mohsin Shaeri, who has become one of the heaviest people in the world, to hospital.
He has not been able to leave his bedroom in two and a half years and part of his home had to be demolished so he could be brought out from the second floor.
The king asked for Shaeri to be taken to hospital six months ago but treatment was delayed until a special bed could     be made for him in the     US.
Saudi Arabia's health ministry worked with civil defence and the Saudi Red Cross to organise the patient's evacuation.
Reports in Saudi Arabia say Shaeri weighs 1,345 pounds (610kg). If correct he is the second heaviest man ever recorded.
Pictures of the operation show him sitting in bed while members of the civil defence lift it onto a forklift truck. One officer even holds an umbrella to shield Shaeri from the sun.
He was then transferred by ambulance to a local airport near his home in the southwestern town of Jizan.
Shaeri's cousin Naser Makke said he was relieved to see that Shaeri had finally been sent for treatment.
Minister of Health Dr Abdullah Al-Rabeeah told the Saudi Gazette: "It is really a humanitarian gesture from the King to order the transfer and treatment of the patient."
Only one person has ever been known to weigh more than Shaeri.
American Jon Brower Minnoch, who died in 1983, reached 1,400 pounds (635kg) -- 55 pounds heavier than  Shaeri.