My 600-lb Life: REVEALED The ‘Real Reason’ Charity Pierce Died At 50 After ‘A Month In Hospice Care’ & Her Heartbreaking Final Message Will Leave You In Tears!
Charity Pierce had been in hospice care for a month or two while battling serious health problems, including lymphedema and fluid buildup in her lungs.
TLC star Charity Pierce passes away
Charity Pierce lost 282 pounds in her first year on the show
According to TMZ, the fluid in her lungs may have contributed to her death.
Pierce’s death was also confirmed by her daughter, Charly Jo, in an emotional Facebook post.
Charly said she was at her mom’s side when she took her last breath, adding that she is now “finally at peace.”
“I wasn’t going to post about this,” Charly wrote, saying an influx of calls and texts pushed her to share the news publicly.
Pierce, 50, rose to national attention on Season 3 of TLC’s hit series, where viewers watched her fight life-threatening obesity and trauma.
At her heaviest, she weighed nearly 800 pounds before seeking professional help.
Her story became one of the show’s most talked-about journeys, featuring major weight loss and skin removal surgeries.
But the road was brutal, with setbacks linked to infections and personal struggles.
Pierce later returned for My 600-lb Life: Where Are They Now? as she faced ongoing health challenges.
The follow-ups also tracked her attempts to rebuild family relationships, including with Charly.
In recent years, she was also diagnosed with kidney cancer and needed surgery.
No official cause of death has been released.
Back when Pierce’s story initially ran, she was housebound with severe mobility problems.
She had vowed to lose enough weight to walk down the aisle with fiancé Tony Sauer.
She shared at the time: “I would rather die than live this way.”
INSIDE HER PAINFUL STRUGGLES
She also vowed to lose enough weight to visit her mother, who was suffering from brain cancer.
Sadly, her mother passed away before Charity was healthy enough to travel, and because she was recovering from her own gastric bypass surgery, she was unable to attend the funeral.
The mother from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, persisted in her journey and lost 282 pounds within a year.
However, after undergoing a procedure to remove approximately 38 pounds of excess skin, Charity developed a serious infection.
She was rushed back to the hospital for emergency treatment to prevent her from going into toxic shock.
Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, the lead physician on the show, performed emergency surgery to clear Charity’s infection.
Charity had struggled with her weight throughout her life, reaching over 490 pounds by her early teenage years.
A 2000 accident further complicated her health, leading to mobility issues and lymphedema, which caused significant swelling in her left leg.
However, after finding love with her partner Tony, who was 23 at the time, he encouraged her to seek medical intervention. He expressed his fears, stating, “I’m scared of losing her if she doesn’t get this help.”
After being accepted for the TLC series, Charity committed to a major lifestyle change, reducing her daily intake from 10,000 calories to a healthy 1,200 and incorporating daily exercise.
Pierce died after spending a couple months in hospice
