My 600-Lb Life documents the lives of morbidly obese patients, telling their stories as they
try to lose weight under the care of Dr. Now. Already at high risk for health problems,
here are some of the stars who have sadly passed away since their time on the show.
Henry Foots appeared on Season 1 of My 600-lb Life. At the beginning of his episode,
he weighed 715 pounds. By the end of his seven-year journey,
he weighed 275 pounds for a total weight loss of 440 pounds. The jovial man's weight loss
was one of Dr. Now's biggest success stories, but the rest of his story is tragic.
Foots had personal setbacks as he tried to lose weight on the show, like the death of his father
and the loss of his job after he put so much effort into rejoining the workforce. Additionally,
Foots' heart stopped amid one of his excess skin removal surgeries, and he had to be resuscitated.
He talked about the experience during his episode, telling viewers,
"I saw a white light. It was just like having an out-of-body experience.
There was the light to take me to Heaven. I wasn't ready for it."
He said that he had more to do in life,
like marry his longtime girlfriend, and the duo wed at the end of the episode.
"To some people I'm still considered obese.
But they don't know I'm on the downslide to being normal."
After filming, however, Foots faced more hardship. Click2Houston.com reported that in November 2012,
he suffered a "medical episode" while driving a commercial bus and lost control of the vehicle at
an intersection, killing a pedestrian. Foots died less than a year later on May 16, 2013,
at age 54. While Foots' cause of death is unknown,
The Cinemaholic reports that it was not related to the accident or to his weight.
Sean Milliken was introduced in Season 4 as a young man who was entirely dependent on
his mother, Renee, and who weighed 1003 pounds at his highest weight.
"I'm a prisoner. All I want is out."
Milliken explained that he began overeating as a child in order to cope with his parents' divorce.
It was this, combined with Milliken suffering a "debilitating leg injury" in high school,
that led him to become bedridden.
Reluctant to join Dr. Now's weight loss program, Milliken's attitude — and the fact that his
mother enabled him not to follow his strict diet — caused the doctor to hospitalize him.
"You may be the heaviest person alive right now. This is not a good place to be.
At your weight, it's a miracle that you're alive."
Eventually approved for weight loss surgery,
Milliken got down to 548 pounds, but he started gaining weight again,
a journey that was detailed in his My 600-lb Life: Where Are They Now? episode.
In 2017, Milliken's mother died of renal failure, and soon after, he lost his home
in Hurricane Harvey. In February 2019, TMZ reported that Milliken died at the age of 29
of complications from an infection. TMZ cited a Facebook post from his father, which said,
"[Sean] was having problems with his breathing,
they were able to resuscitate him and a short time later his heart stopped."
My 600-lb Life star James King appeared on Season 5 of the TLC series. In his episode,
King revealed that food became his, quote, "joy and safety" throughout his difficult
childhood. In addition to his family struggling financially, King barely knew his mother,
who wasn't around as she battled alcoholism. Shortly after reconnecting with her when he was
15, his mother died of liver cancer. During her funeral, the family's home burned down.
Although King sought Dr. Now's help, he actually gained weight throughout the process, beginning
the show at 735 pounds and weighing in at 788 pounds at the end of his documented journey.
When King appeared on the My 600-lb Life: Where Are They Now? spinoff, he weighed 840 pounds,
before going down to 600. However, he is also one of a handful of patients who Dr.
Now discharged — TLC stopped filming King because he apparently wasn't cooperating with the process.
In April 2020, The U.S. Sun reported that King died at the age of 49
of kidney failure caused by septic shock, with a source revealing,
"He weighed about 500 pounds when he passed away. He would have been proud of himself."
Robert Buchel was sadly the first of three participants featured on Season
6 of My 600-lb Life to pass away. Buchel grew up around fattening food, as his family owned
a fried chicken restaurant. He later used food to cope with trauma beginning at age 9,
when he was sexually assaulted by a neighbor. However, Buchel's eating
habits were at their worst after his brother died because he felt guilty for being alive.
Buchel was 842 pounds when he began his weight loss journey with Dr. Now. He was determined
to lose weight so that he could meet his fiancée, Kathryn, halfway down the aisle at their wedding.
Buchel's body was in such bad shape that he couldn't undergo weight loss surgery right away,
but he did have lymphedema removal surgery. While he eventually lost 340 pounds,
according to Starcasm, Buchel got depressed post-surgery, and started refusing to exercise
and comply with the program. He died of a heart attack at age 41 in November 2017.
Lisa Fleming's story was told on Season 6 of My 600-lb Life. She was also one of the
most difficult patients we've seen Dr. Now deal with on camera. Fleming told viewers in
her episode that she had developed eating issues early on in life. When we met her,
Fleming, who was bed-bound, explained that she used food to cope with her parents' divorce,
her struggles as a very young teen mom, and her brother's death in a fight outside her home.
Fleming was 704 pounds when she started Dr. Now's program.
When she failed to make much progress on her own without a hospital-controlled
diet after six months, however, Dr. Now had to drop her as a patient.
Fleming's daughter, Danielle, later told TMZ that her mom lost 200 pounds following her episode,
but died at her home from other health problems in August 2018.
Fleming was 50 years old.
Kelly Mason appeared on Season 7 of My 600-lb Life. With an extensive history of health issues,
including type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure, she weighed in at 726 pounds.
According to Monsters & Critics, Mason's already poor eating habits — she essentially
grew up on fast food and found comfort in eating amid her troubled childhood — got
even worse after she was sexually assaulted by a neighbor at the age of 9. After her
abuser died in a car accident, she ate even more due to her guilt over feeling relief.
She later overate to cope with a miscarriage when she was 19.
"And I didn't think my life could end up like this."
Mason was one of Dr. Now's hardest-working patients. She eventually qualified for surgery
after hospital and rehab stays, and her weight got down to 383 pounds. Unfortunately,
Mason's weight loss didn't prevent her heart from failing, and she died in her sleep during the
tenth month of her filmed journey in February 2019, according to Distractify. She was 41.
During Mason's episode, Dr. Now told viewers that he had been hopeful that
her heart health might improve because her weight loss had been on track.
"She was working hard and doing what she needed.
But despite that, the damage to her heart up to this point was just too severe."
Coliesa McMillian appeared on Season 8 of My 600-lb Life. McMillian started the show at 643
pounds. She explained during her episode that she started eating to deal with family trauma,
including her father's alcoholism, her mother's death, being separated from her siblings and
put in foster care, and alleged sexual abuse at the hands of biological family members. Later,
she said, she got into an abusive relationship. McMillian also survived a heart attack at 39
years old and later grieved the sudden death of her fiancé after a fatal car accident.
While McMillian struggled with Dr. Now's diet, she was approved for weight loss surgery,
because she was making slow progress, and Dr. Now had concerns that she had
an intestinal blockage. At the end of her episode, she had lost 145 pounds in total,
and she described Dr. Now as her, quote, "own personal angel."
McMillian seemed to be a success story, but she later suffered complications from her surgery
when a suture popped. According to Starcasm, she was hemorrhaging, septic, and put on life support.
McMillian eventually did wake up, but her body unfortunately couldn't overcome the complications,
and she passed away at the age of 41.
James "LB" Bonner has one of the more tragic stories on My 600-lb Life, but his actual
weight loss journey was a striking success. Bonner weighed 642 pounds when we met him,
and during his last weigh-in on the show, he was 326 pounds, around half his original weight.
Bonner had previously started overeating as a child to cope with the death of a beloved
aunt who would always give him snacks, but following his Season 6 episode, the star was
eating healthy meals and maintaining an exercise regimen. Sadly, despite his success on the show,
Bonner was internally struggling. According to TMZ, he was found dead when the police came by
to perform a welfare check on him in August 2018. The 30-year-old's death was later ruled a suicide.
In a cryptic Facebook post before his death,
Bonner thanked those who had supported him during his journey, writing,
"I just want to say thank you to everyone who has shown me love and
support throughout my journey. [...] I've realized a few things over the
last few days and it's time that I face my demons head on. [...] Again,
thank y'all so much. [...] Please don't ever let people you care about not know how you feel."
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.