Oxygen Monologue

The performer [Israel Kamakawiwo'ole] says:

[... Your body needs oxygen more than you give in air
... Oxygen is a gas
Oxygen is needed for the work of heart
Heart and kidneys need oxygen to work...
When I was in hospital I realized why I need oxygen.
I needed oxygen during sleep...]

He goes describing the need of the heart and kidneys to oxygen and how heart and kidneys work together and how water get retained in the body.

These words are an echo of what a doctor explained to this artist during his illness.

This monologue is the last item on his album called: ALONE IN IZ WORLD [₁]

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: May 20, 1959 - June 26, 1997 (pronounced “Ka-MA-ka-VEE-vo-oh-lay”) was a giant, a man of more than 700 pounds who could make the little ukulele sing as sweetly as his own falsetto. In death, he has emerged as Hawaiian music's gentle ambassador. He passed away in 1997 after succumbing to morbid obesity. He was 38 years of age. He will always be remembered here for his warmth, his self-deprecating humor and his talent as a singer and gifted ukulele player. Shortly before his death, he could only walk with extreme effort and even performed with oxygen. His music has got attention in USA with the release of the movie, Hannibal, in which his version of Somewhere over the Rainbow is heard. He was a gentle soul and Hawaiian through and through [₂]

Picture of the artist Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (©2005 Hawaiian Music Island) on one of his Album May 20, 1959 - June 26, 1997. He suffered from morbid obesity (700) pounds. He used Oxygen prones during his performance and he summarized his adaptation with his medical conditions in “Oxygen” in his last Album: Alone in IZ World.

Figure 1

Morbid Obesity

Morbid obesity means attaining overweight status to a degree will threaten your vital system and expose the individual to disease. A person will be considered morbidly obese if be attains more than double his ideal body weight or more than 50 kg (100 pounds) overweight.

Morbid obesity is also defined in terms of the Body Mass Index (BMI). This is a calculated number (kilograms divided by the height in meters squared). A BMI of 25 is normal, A BMI of 40 indicates the presence of morbid obesity, and a BMI between 35 to 40 justifies the surgery with the presence of serious co-morbidities such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Morbidly obese patients are susceptible to a wide range of health disorders, including diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, kidneys diseases, respiratory disturbances, sleep apnea and degenerative arthritis. Morbid obesity greatly increases the patient chances of dying from cardiovascular disease. (The possibility of early death for morbidly obese men at age of 23–34 years is 12 times that of men in the general population of normal body weight.) [₃]

The consequences of excess body fat can also reduce aspects of social and personal relationships, thus causing emotional stress. Such individuals face difficulty in finding employment. They face trouble and expense of obtaining special clothing.

Failure Of Reducing Weight Efforts

Dieting, in general, does not work. Even with intense effort only a very small percentage of morbidly obese people are successful in taking off and keeping off excess weight. Lack of success at dieting effort adds to the feeling of inadequacy and failure.

Drugs might help with weight loss as long as they are taken, and therefore for permanent weight loss would need to be taken indefinitely. All the drugs used in reducing body weight have some side effects and the weight lost soon will return when the drugs are stopped. In conclusion, these drugs are considered from the past experience and projected from the foreseeable future, are truly effective in reducing the large amounts of weight necessary for the morbidly obese.

Surgery may offer solution for some selection of morbidly obese patients.

Correspondence to

Dr. M.S.M. Takrouri MB.ChB. FFARCS(I) Professor of Anesthesia Department of Anesthesia , King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) Riyadh 11461 P.O. Box 2925 Tel 009661 4671595 Fax 0096614679463 E-mail :takrouri@ksu.edu.sa