A former patient at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence claims he was suddenly asked to leave the facility for ordering pizza, according to an ABC6 report.
The former patient, 33-year-old Steven Assanti, has struggled with his weight and now weighs 800 pounds.
"I have an addiction to food. I just love to eat. I progressively became worse and it became like an addiction and I realize it is an addiction and a disease," Mr. Assanti told ABC6.
He sought help and was enrolled for the past 80 days in a weight loss program through Rhode Island Hospital, according to the report. He told ABC6 he lost more than 20 pounds and decided to have a "cheat meal" as a reward. So he ordered a pizza.
That decision violated the rules of his weight loss program, and Mr. Assanti said he was asked to leave the hospital, according to the report.
"Now they were suppose to keep me there until I got to 550 [pounds] to get the gastric bypass [surgery] and all of a sudden, they just let me go like that. It's shocking," he told ABC6.
Beth Bailey, a spokeswoman for Rhode Island Hospital, declined to comment in detail. However, she did confirm Mr. Assanti was a patient at the hospital and was discharged.
Generally speaking, she said, Rhode Island Hospital does not offer an inpatient weight program. She said the Miriam Hospital in Providence has an outpatient weight loss clinic that has successfully treated thousands of patients. Both the Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital offer bariatric surgery.
In an Associated Press report published by ABC6, Mr. Assanti's father said social workers were attempting to arrange for Mr. Assanti to stay at Kent Hospital in Warwick, R.I., through the weekend.
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