Half-ton Mexican dies of heart failure

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A 450-kilogram (990-pound) bedridden man who had appealed on Mexican television for help tackling his weight problem died Tuesday of heart failure, his family said.

The Associated Press reports this morning that emergency officials had to knock down Jose Luis Garza’s bedroom wall and load him onto the back of a friend’s pickup truck as he fought for his life. The 47-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in northern Mexico.

Garza said he always struggled with his weight, but that he fell into a desperate cycle of depression and overeating nine months ago after his parents died of natural causes within two weeks of each other. He had been bedridden for four months.

Read more about the death of Mexican Jose Luis Garza here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City