King Orders Medical Treatment for 1,345 Pound Man

There's new hope this morning for a Saudi Arabian citizen who is one of the heaviest people in the world.

Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari weighs 1,345 pounds and because of his weight, he can't move on his own.

Now, on order of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, he's been airlifted by military plane to Riyadh to undergo medical treatment.

“Shaari hasn’t been able to leave his bedroom for more than two years,” reports CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

He was taken out of his home using a forklift, and part of the structure had to be demolished to be bring him out.

“It's unclear how he got to be this severely obese but Dr. Robert Lustig, a leading pediatric endocrinologist, has a theory,” Cohen says.

“I don't think he can eat himself to 1,345 pounds, but he can certainly drink himself to it,” Lustig says.

“Liquid calories don't stimulate satiety like solid calories…It's hot there, so it goes down really easy.”

According to Dr. Lustig, the treatment must include a restrictive diet, not weight loss surgery.

“You can't do surgery on him now, it's too dangerous. You basically would have to keep him in the hospital for years on a restricted calorie diet. At some point it will become safe to do a bariatric procedure.”