910-pound woman reveals a life of pain: ‘I want to live!’
As her world shrank, Marie Bowman grew.
With every loss — her son, her mother, her grandmother — the Harlem woman gained weight, becoming so large, she stopped being able to walk or even move her own legs.
But it wasn’t until Friday, when Bowman felt ill enough to call 911, that she realized just how bad things had become.
She was unable to make it out of her own front door.
In order to get Bowman to the hospital for treatment, the FDNY had to use a crane to lift the 910-pound woman through the window of her second-floor apartment.
It “was the first time I discovered I couldn’t get out of my apartment,” Bowman said.
“I had grown too big. And that was frightening, because you don’t think, never once, that I wouldn’t be able to get through my door.”
But now Bowman, 70, is ready for a second chance, she told The Post Saturday in an exclusive bedside interview.
“This is my life, not a show. I want to live. I’m here in the hospital because I want to live,” she said through tears, as she reflected on years of lost loves and pain.
“I am determined to get better. Weight reduction, exercise. It’s scary to know that you can pick up that kind of weight.”
When emergency responders took Bowman to St. Luke’s Hospital Friday, it was the first time she had been outside her apartment in nearly a year.
Firefighters had tried to get her outside by removing the door of her home, but even that wasn’t enough.
“They tore out the frames and all the knocking and hammering, only to find I’m still wider than the frame,” she said before dissolving into tears. “Oh, God.”
By the time emergency responders were able to wrap a yellow netting around Bowman and maneuver her outside, a crowd had developed.
Cruel bystanders began cheering and clapping when rescue workers finally got her through the window and down to the ground by crane.
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