My 600-Lb. Life alum Pauline Potter died at age 62 on Thanksgiving, months after being involved in a car accident.
Pauline’s son, Dillon, broke the news in an emotional YouTube video shared on November 30, just three days after Pauline succumbed to her health issues on November 27.
In the video, Dillon said that he and his mom were involved in a collision involving another vehicle in January, which resulted in Pauline suffering from long-lasting ailments in the final months of her life.
“We were driving on a dark two-lane highway, and there was a truck and trailer that was stopped in the middle of the road,” Dillon explained. “We did not see it because they didn’t have any lights on. The guy claimed that he ran out of gas, but for whatever reason, he still didn’t have his lights on. We hit the trailer. Because he didn’t have lights on, we didn’t see it until it was too late, and we were right up on it.”
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Dillon said the car was “totaled,” and both he and his mom had pain in their hands and wrists. He said that Pauline later learned she suffered broken ribs and also had a “pretty good gash” on her left leg.
Following the incident, Pauline was taken to a local hospital to be checked over but was discharged because they “couldn’t find anything wrong with her,” Dillon said.
According to the reality television personality’s son, a week or two later, Pauline went back to the hospital after experiencing severe chest pains, which led to her being diagnosed with broken ribs. He said she was sent home and told that her injuries would take several weeks to heal.
In late June, Pauline began experiencing digestive issues “where she could not keep any food down,” Dillon said, adding that “everything she ate or drank kept coming back up.” Pauline returned to the hospital, but “they couldn’t find anything wrong,” he claimed.
Pauline’s condition turned more serious in August when she had further tests at the hospital and doctors found she had a “blockage in her esophagus,” which was causing food to come back up. She was also diagnosed with COVID-19.
Pauline remained in the hospital for several months while she received treatment. During this time, Dillon said that doctors also discovered a “pretty severe” wound on her back that “she didn’t tell anybody about, I guess because she was embarrassed.” Doctors proposed surgical treatment on the wound, but “her health was not in a good state.”
“They couldn’t do all these tests and surgeries and procedures that they wanted to do because there was always something wrong,” Dillon explained, adding that his mom became malnourished because she wasn’t able to keep food down.
According to Dillon, his mom continuously refused treatment for the back wound, “saying it hurt really bad, and when it came time for them to [clean the wound] every day, she kept turning them down, not wanting to do it.”
Dillon said that his mom was sent home on hospice care in November after he and his family were told “there was nothing else they could do for her.”
“They said that there is a possibility she could recover, but it’s kind of unlikely at this point,” he said, adding that doctors also said she had “signs of heart failure and respiratory failure.”
“So, she came home to my aunt’s house on hospice on November 19th, I believe, and she was there for about a week and a half,” Dillon said. “There were times where it seemed like she was doing good, and of course, she was awake and able to talk and everything, but there were times where she was in pain and she was out of it and just wanted her pain medicine.”
Dillon said Pauline died on Thanksgiving Day before he could make it over to his aunt’s house.
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“We all went to gather over at my aunt’s house, where she was at for Thanksgiving. … But right when I was leaving and heading towards [my aunt’s] house, I got the call saying that she had passed away,” Dillon said.
Dillon has since set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a cremation. As of early Thursday, December 11, the page has raised $125 out of a $1,400 target.
Pauline, from Sacramento, California, was featured on season 3 of My 600-Lb. Life in February 2015.
In 2016, Pauline was named the heaviest living woman by Guinness World Records. At the time, she weighed just over 647 pounds.
Pauline appeared to have shed hundreds of pounds since then, per photos posted on her Facebook page. In October 2020, Pauline wrote that she was down to 226 pounds, which she said was “my smallest adult weight EVER!!”
