Click to view image: '0128219638e8-obesewoman2.jpg'

A team of 20 firefighters were forced to knock down part of a bungalow to get out a 40-stone woman requiring urgent hospital treatment.

They smashed through her bedroom and living room walls, before managing to get her outside through a large bay window, which was also broken in the process.

Reclusive Joanne Ettienne, 45, had not left her house in Tingley, West Yorkshire, for three years until the firefighters were called to find a way of moving her to an ambulance.



Click to view image: '2e3c45f420f9-obesewoman3.jpg'


Miss Ettienne suffers from severe health and mobility problems. She needed hospital treatment for severe infections in her legs and feet and is likely to remain there for several months.

Speaking from her hospital bed, she told how the eight hour operation to move her began when she called for an ambulance and paramedics arrived.

They could not get her out of the house and 20 firefighters and several police officers were called to the scene.

Firefighters faced huge logistical problems as Miss Ettienne was unable to walk and was too big to be moved through internal doors. They were forced to create larger openings in walls.

She said: 'They couldn't move me and I couldn't get up so they tried to make me comfortable. The firemen had to smash my bedroom door and then my bedroom wall and put barriers up to stop it crumbling.

'They lifted me out into the sitting room then they had to smash my sitting room wall and window so they could get me outside. That's the only way they could get me out. My whole bungalow is a wreck now.'



Click to view image: 'f89a79b98382-obese_woman_1.jpg'


Miss Ettienne, a mother of three, said she was partially paralysed after contracting MRSA in December 2008 and her immobility led to her gaining more weight.

Social services have been helping to care for her and she has spent much of the last three years in her small bedroom.

She said: 'I'm in bed 24/7 and all I want to do is see where I live, I don't even know what the area is like. I want to be able to get to the shops and look around but I can't even make myself a cup of tea.'

Ernest Lockwood, 79, who lives next door, said: 'I still can't quite believe what happened, there were so many firefighters here, they were swarming the street and they had to block the road off because there were so many of them.

'When they eventually pulled her out of the window after eight hours, it was the first time I'd ever seen her, even though we've lived next door to each other for three years.

'I'd never met the woman, but I had heard she was bedridden. I feel so sorry for her and I hope she gets better, I really hope she's OK.'

A Leeds City Council spokesman said: 'We will always review a person's care needs following a spell in hospital. Quite often, a person's circumstances have changed so we routinely carry out a review to ensure an appropriate care plan is in place.'

The spokesman added: 'Clearly, the Health and Adult Social Care services will have to work closely to ensure Miss Ettienne can be successfully rehabilitated to her home, with an appropriate care plan in place before she returns home.'