The Man Who Ate Himself To Death

This is the terribly tragic story of Ricky Naputi, who weighed in at 65 stone, classing him as one of the world’s largest men. Ricky was a born and raised on the Pacific Island of Guam, although having always been overweight, it was throughout the last years of Ricky’s life that he became completely bedridden due to the fact he could no longer support his own bodyweight, he had become a prisoner in his own room.

Ricky and his wife of ten years Cheryl knew that if Ricky didn’t find the help he needed that he would inevitably die due to his weight. Living on Guam however, meant that there was no real suitable healthcare available to Ricky because of this both Ricky and his wife desperately tried to find help abroad in the United States.

This film follows Ricky throughout the last few months of his life, documenting his struggle to loose weight and attempts at being considered for the operational procedure known as a gastric bypass in a last attempt to save his life.

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  1. I guess I don’t understand the whole Eater/Feeder paradigm. I say: if ya wanna eat, get up and get it yourself! If you’re too fat to get up, then guess what? You eat what I give you: 2,500 healthy calories a day until you can get up and get it yourself.

  2. Obesity is not a disease by is own admission this man choose is faith hence it’s not a disease

  3. The wife is an enabler, and she is weak. She won’t even stand up to her husband. Saying she buys his food, because she can’t control his eating habits. Excuse me, but from what I see, she has 100% control! She does the shopping, she does the cooking, she just doesn’t care enough I guess. Apparently out of “love” she does this. That is not love, that’s just pathetic excuse to keep him down and out. As for him, well, he did it to himself by allowing himself to keep eating bad foods, instead of telling his wife “Listen I need better more healthier foods”. Sad, pathetic, and I really have no sympathy for him or the wife, they didn’t take the steps to recovery.

  4. Never say NEVER because what happened to that man can happen to you. Karma comes around, so you better watch yourself.

  5. This guy had the mentality of a small child. Everyone told him almost the exact same thing – lose 100 lbs. Then he starts crying about how he can’t and they need to help him more, after these people traveled thousands of miles because the blob couldn’t even be shipped by cargo container! Natural selection always wins in the end

  6. stuffing your face is not a disease its greed , what a dumb fat twat !!

  7. maybe he was going for the part of ‘Jabba the hut’ in the new star wars movie?

  8. If you’re looking to be pissed off, perfect documentary. I only felt sorry for the people who tried to help him; he himself did nothing to help his extremely dire situation.

  9. Obesity (just like alcoholism) is not a disease. Cancer is a disease, ALS is a disease. What this guy suffered from is textbook DARWINISM. However, I do feel badly for his family and wife.

    • Alcoholism actually is a disease. The American Medical Association considers alcoholism as a disease. Maybe find out if what you are saying is actually correct.

      • Just because the AMA *now*, in part, considers alcoholism a disease does not make it so. You can’t catch alcoholism, you can’t contract alcoholism. Alcoholism is an ADDICTION. Substance abuse is not a disease and categorizing it as such removes all accountability from the addict and thus creates a victim/self-defeatist mentality. No, alcoholism is not passed genetically nor can be traced genetically either. People will try to say it’s genetic but a possible “assumed predisposition” to addictive behaviors bear no genetic markers whatsoever, so that’s BS. Is crack or heroine addiction a disease? No..but for some reason people like to excuse alcoholism with the guise of disease because it is a more prevalent and somewhat more “socially acceptable” or “manageable” problem more than crack or heroine or [insert whatever drug].

        Actually, heroine and crack have a higher addictive ratio, a substantially faster addiction rate, much severe physical withdrawal and dependency, AND a stronger preoccupation than alcohol – yet alcohol addiction gets the “disease” label. It’s for a reason, that reason being: the types, rather, the CLASSES of people who could/would/have/will become alcoholics. If it’s called a “disease” it thereby removes the stigma of “addict” / “substance abuser” and affords the ADDICT a modicum of respect, pity and escape from the true reality of what alcoholism really is.

        It’s not a disease. You’re being spoon fed refuse.

  10. The only way people get this way is because of the idiots around them who enable them; his wife.