Tragic story of woman who died with skin attached to her sofa after sitting in it for six years

A Florida woman who spent six years on her sofa died with her skin attached to it.

Gayle Laverne Grinds, 39, initially suffered a broken leg in the 90s.

Standing at just 4' 10", the unlucky lady then broke her leg again, shortly after the first fracture healed.

The second leg break reportedly impacted her mental health, and Grinds thought by staying put on the sofa, it would save her from further injury.

To the shock of her long-term partner, Herman Thomas, the woman never got off the sofa in her apartment - located in Golden Gate, south of Stuart - again.

An unverified picture of a woman thought to be Gayle Grinds (History Flix)

After years of sitting, she became morbidly obese, weighing in at 34 st.

Six years on, her skin began to stick to the fabric of the sofa, and it hasn't really been officially verified how.

"I tried to take care of her the best I could," her partner Thomas, 54, said at the time.

"I wish I could have pulled her off the couch, but she wouldn't let me."

Grinds reportedly wasn't even able to get off to go the bathroom, and eventually her family members called emergency services when she had trouble with her breathing.

12 firefighters reportedly turned up to the property, along with a custom-built wooden stretcher to lift her and the couch out of the apartment.

"We couldn't get her in the ambulance," Martin County Fire-Rescue District Chief, Jim Loffredo, said.

Rescue staff had no other option but to use a trailer attached to a pick-up truck to get her to the hospital.

A newspaper clipping from that time (Historic Flix)

Grinds reportedly died at 3:12 am local time, still attached to the couch, according to officials.

Martin County Sheriff's Sergeant, Jenell Atlas, added: "We are used to going to people's houses when things are at their worst... and that's fine, we're trained for it.

"But there is no warning for something like this."

Jerry Thomas, who lived across the street for six years, said: "All we knew was the old man lived there.

"I had no idea a woman ever lived in that house. Apparently she'd been on that couch a long time."

Grinds was said to have cared for a young niece and nephew after the death of her sister in 1992, but we haven't heard from them since.

Family members were reportedly very upset by the situation.