World's fattest man Juan Franco prepares for surgery

Doctors in Mexico have set a surgery date for Juan Pedro Franco, the world’s fattest and heaviest man who once weighed more than half a ton at 595 kilos.

Franco has been on a three-month diet to prepare for the gastric bypass surgery scheduled for May 9.

The native of Aguascalientes in north-central Mexico has to shed some 175 kilos at a special weight-loss clinic so as to make himself a suitable candidate for the operation, according to state news agency Notimex.

“He has lost nearly 30 percent of his initial weight, so he is ready to undergo (the) bariatric surgery,” his doctor, Jose Antonio Castaneda Cruz, told reporters at a press conference..

Franco noted there were other people trapped in their homes like him. “Some have passed away perhaps from sadness, or because they don’t dare (to) ask for help.”

He urged those suffering from obesity “to raise their voice and ask for help since it is possible.”