317-kilogram man dies after stomach-reduction surgery

GUATEMALA CITY: A man who weighed 317 kilograms died of heart failure after undergoing an operation to remove 80 per cent of his stomach in a desperate effort to reduce his weight.
    
Carlos Marroquin, 47, who died on Friday was so heavy at the time of Thursday's operation that hospital workers used a forklift to place him on the operating table, surgeon Isaias Sandigo, who participated in the procedure.
    
"He had two heart attacks in 20 minutes, there was nothing we could have done for him," Sandigo said. He said Marroquin' heart and kidneys had begun failing even before the procedure.
    
Marroquin's family checked him in to the San Juan de Dios Hospital's obesity clinic for treatment after they were told that nothing more could be done for him at a local hospital in his home town of Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, southwest of Guatemala City.