Firefighters get 39 stone ill woman from house

Joanne Ettienne, 45, had spent that time living as a recluse. Fire crews were called because she required urgent hospital treatment.

Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Ettienne said she is now desperate to experience life outside her tiny bungalow bedroom.

Ms Ettienne, whose health and mobility problems have seen her weight rise to 39-and-a-half stone, got into difficulties in her bedroom on the weekend of April 24.

On the Saturday, she called an ambulance but when paramedics arrived they were unable to get her out of her house in Tingley, near Leeds.

A major operation had to be launched involving police and 20 firefighters.

Ms Ettienne said: "The firemen – there must have been 20 of them – had to come and they 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.

She added: "That's the only way they could get me out. My whole bungalow is a wreck now."

Ms Ettienne is now in St James's Hospital, Leeds. She has infections in her legs and feet and faces a long stay.