About

First, Do No Harm came about following the tremendous response to this post by Barbara Benesch-Granberg, a.k.a. Thorn. When Thorn told the tragic story of her mother’s death — which followed decades of her being too afraid to see to a doctor who’d told her not to come back unless she lost 50 lbs. — the outpouring of similarly heartbreaking stories was overwhelming.

We hear constantly that we’re in the midst of an “obesity epidemic,” that fat people are burdening the health care system (or eventually will), and that being fat automatically equals ill health, even though that’s patently false. What we don’t hear are the stories of fat people being berated and shamed by health care professionals; being handed Weight Watchers brochures when they come in with strep throat; being misdiagnosed and mistreated, dismissed and dehumanized — sometimes with fatal consequences — because doctors can’t see anything but their fat.

So, inspired by sites like Hollaback, we decided to start collecting those stories in one place. This kind of thing happens every day. It’s past time we started hearing every one of these stories.

If you have a story to tell, please send it to fathealth at gmail dot com.