Fat people and embolisms I was thinking about the recent story of a teacher here in the UK who died after falling off a table and breaking her leg. She was grossly overweight. I couldn't fathom how someone could die from breaking a leg, obese or otherwise. I was talking about it to a friend in the medical profession and he said that there is fat in our bone marrow, which in the case of a broken limb can break away and cause an embolism. And obviously with an obese person there is a greater chance of that happening.  So if I fall off a table in my classroom (I am a teacher myself and have been in some precarious positions this week, putting displays up!) and break a leg, it would hurt like fuck, but chances are I wouldn't die, because fat would not burst out of my broken fibula and kill me.  All these massively overweight people who claim that they're healthy...if Tess Holliday trips over at Disneyworld, she's obviously going to be a greater risk than someone of normal size.  This may have been incredibly obvious to most of you, but the news story in question was pretty close to home and I do the same job so it really got me thinking. Why on earth would you stay fat?