Eman’s sister thanks Abu Dhabi docs

Monday, when Eman Ahmed, once the world’s heaviest woman, died in Abu Dhabi, her sister Shaimaa Selim was composed and showed none of the anger she had for the doctors in Mumbai with whom she had a falling-out during the course of Eman’s three-month stay here for treatment.

After accusing the doctors at Mumbai’s Saifee Hospital, where Eman was admitted in February, of making false claims about the weight loss, Selim, who has been with her sister throughout her journey to Mumbai and then to Abu Dhabi, was mellow and thanked the doctors.

While Shaimaa didn’t respond to calls and messages from HT, a video message, shared on social media, showed her sitting in a brightly-lit room, saying Eman’s condition had improved at Abu Dhabi’s Burjeel Hospital.

“I want to thank Abu Dhabi, VPS, Burjeel Hospital, Dr Shamsheer (Vayalil) for everything. He did all best for my sister. I saw special machines and good doctors here. We couldn’t do anything but to pray for her,” Shaimaa said in the video message which ends abruptly.

In April, in a video shared on social media, Shaimaa had called Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, who was treating Eman, and other staff of the Saifee Hospital ‘liars’. She claimed they had “put Eman on massive medication to stop her brain activity”.

Officials had said this was the family’s way to delay Eman’s discharge from the Mumbai hospital as none of the medical facilities in Egypt was willing to provide free medical services.

Within a month, Eman was shifted to Burjeel Hospital, which had approached the family in the past to treat Eman.

Eman was brought to Mumbai from her hometown Alexandria, Egypt, in a freighter plane, and was kept in a custom-made room at Saifee Hospital. Officials there said they had spent more than ₹2 crore on Eman’s transportation, treatment and surgery, and had separately collected money through donations from around the world.

Doctors from Saifee Hospital had even shared a picture of Eman watching television to refute claims made by the sister, who, in a video message, had gone on to accuse the Mumbai doctors of being “unequipped” and “caring only about show and propaganda to appear in media”.

MUMBAI:On