Eman’s challenge: Losing 200 kg in 6 months
Doctors at Mumbai’s Saifee Hospital celebrated on Thursday when Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, 36, lifted her right hand to her forehead for the first time in three years.
In Mumbai since February 11 this year for weight-loss surgery, the world’s heaviest woman weighed 498 kg in Alexandria two months ago. The plan is to make her lose 200 kg in six months.
“We’ve charted her treatment for six months, I’ve drawn and scripted the whole procedure like a film script,” says Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, chairperson of Institute of minimal access surgical sciences and research centre, Saifee Hospital.
HERE’S WHAT DOCTORS PLAN FOR HER
Diet: Eman now weighs 460 kg, having lost close to 40 kg after the Saifee team stepped in a month ago.
She had been put on 1,200 calories high protein-low carb diet of chicken, fish and dairy in Egypt to bring her weight down for travel to India. This was followed up with 1,100-1,200 calories liquid diet.
“The diet will continue till two weeks after surgery, and then she will be able to have semisolid mashed) foods like soup, daal and khichdi,” says Dr Carlyne Remedios, senior nutritionist, Saifee Hospital
“Four weeks after surgery, she can have regular solid food in small amounts,” he added further. Physiotherapy: Hersizeisa challenge. Eman is wider than she is high and her muscles can’t support her weight.
She is almost 151 cm wide and 141 cm tall and hasn’t walked in more than two decades. A stoke three years ago impaired her speech, her ability to swallow
and the movement of the right side of her body. She is now undergoing passive physiotherapy.
Hormones: The dose of the drug to control her hyperthyroidism has been increased. “Eman also has hypogonadism (the ovaries are producing little or no sex hormones), but I want her to stabilise further before treating her for it,” says Dr Shehla Sheikh, endocrinologist at Saifee Hospital.
Genetic tests: Samples from Eman were collected and sent to the US to be tested using ObèCORE, a 36-genes panel for monogenic obesity, to determine whether her weight gain is caused by genetic diseases.
“Obesity is caused by a complex interplay between multiple genes and environmental factors,
and rarely does a specific variant of a single gene causes inherited obesity in families (monogenic obesity).” says Zoya Brar, managing director, Core Diagnostics.
Surgery: She will undergo sleeve gastrectomy, a laparoscopic surgery that reduces the size of the stomach to 10-15% of its original size by surgically removing a large portion of the stomach. It’s an irreversible procedure.
“We’ve planned for surgery around four weeks for now because the results of her genetic tests will be in and help us optimize treatment and recover,” says Dr Lakdawala.
“Our aim is to make her sit up and move in six months and over the next two years, get her back on her feet,” he added.