Renee Williams (person)

Renee Williams was an American woman from Austin, Texas who died in 2007, aged 29, due to morbid obesity. She was the subject of a television programme called "Half Ton Mum" that was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom after her death as part of the BodyShock series, and also held the world record for being the heaviest person ever to have gastric bypass surgery on her stomach at 70 stone, or around 980lbs, after which she died 12 days later due to a heart attack. When Renee went into hospital for her gastric bypass surgery, her Body Mass Index was calculated by the doctors to be 113 kg/m², where a BMI of 50+ is considered "super-morbidly obese".

Renee also featured in the program Amazing Medical Stories:

At 406kg, 29-year-old Renee Williams is the world's biggest woman.Confined to her bed, Renee begged doctors to perform an operation when she became so large that she couldn't hug her own children. She's waited 12 years for the gastric bypass surgery to help her get back on her feet... but it may just be too late.

She became a mother at age 16, and was "super-morbidly obese" from the age of 12 upwards. In 2003, she was involved in a car crash which the psychological effect of caused her to binge-eat even more, making her gain around 30 stone in the process, with reports of her eating up to eight burgers at a time whilst she was bedridden.

Further reading

* [http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=5347&sectionname=amazingmedicalstories Channel 9]
* [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=505198&in_page_id=1811 Daily Mail]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/03/television.tvandradioarts Guardian]