How world’s heaviest woman was saved
Egyptian’s dramatic improvement in capital hospital is beaten only by the return of her smile
The smile on the face of Eman Abd el Aty on her first public appearance since arriving in Abu Dhabi 10 weeks ago was even more striking than the weight she has lost.
The future had looked bleak for Egyptian Ms El Aty, once known as the heaviest woman in the world.
Only 36, her life was destined to be cut short because of a rare childhood thyroid condition that had caused her weight to balloon to almost 500 kilograms.
Her desperate family appealed for help, and flew her to Mumbai from Cairo for bariatric surgery, which led to her losing more than 300kg.
Most of that weight was cut away, but doctors in India were unable to continue her treatment and rehabilitation.
An operation led by VPS Healthcare to move Ms El Aty to Abu Dhabi in May has given her fresh hope.
Specialist doctors at Burjeel Hospital have helped her to undergo an incredible transformation.
Once bedridden and unable to support herself, she can now sit up in bed and her speech is returning for the first time since she suffered a stroke three years ago.
“Eman’s transformation has been incredible,” said Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, chairman and managing director of the VPS healthcare team.
“The ability for her to now communicate with her family has been overwhelming for them. Her mother and niece visited her for two weeks and didn’t recognise her at first.”
On arrival in Abu Dhabi, doctors diagnosed several serious medical conditions.
She was severely depressed and refused to communicate with those around her. She was unable to speak or pronounce sentences or words.
Previously limited to crawling around her home in Alexandria, her mobility was further restricted after a stroke, which cost her the use of her limbs.
Severe bedsores, a fever and urinary tract infection made her life a misery, worsened by acute kidney failure and severe dehydration.
Ms El Aty had been fed through a stomach tube, but the food delivered often made her ill because it reacted with her medical conditions.
Morbidly obese, she suffered intermittent fits and would lose consciousness – affecting her general mental health and willingness to recover.
Doctors have overseen a remarkable turnaround from that desperate condition.
It is a huge leap forward, said Dr Anita das Gupta, a clinical dietician who manages Ms El Aty’s calorie intake and weight loss.
“We calculate everything she needs according to her body weight, and she now gets a low-calorie, balanced diet.”
Because of the extensive stomach surgery, Ms El Aty was fed gradually to stop her body rejecting food.
Dr Gupta’s team also discovered that she was allergic to certain foods, so they have had to tread carefully when introducing new meals.
“We based her diet according to her tolerance and the surgery,” Dr Gupta said.
“She has four meals a day, and has soft cooked food that is chopped up. She understands the taste and smell of food again, she is enjoying it and can feed herself.”
Her family, scarred by the media circus that followed her from Mumbai, have restricted public interviews, fed up with the negative publicity around the case and the stigma of Ms El Aty being the world’s heaviest woman.
During her time in Abu Dhabi, cameras have been banned for staff entering her ward and information on her progress is tightly controlled.
Doctors will not reveal exactly how much weight she has lost, but insist she is making startling progress.
Reshma raj Anoop, a hospital speech therapist, said she was difficult to engage with at first.
“Eman could only murmur, and could not control the muscles used for speech, so it was frustrating for her. Since her speech therapy, she can now say her name and where she is from. Communication is so important for her recovery, especially for her family.”
They are training her with sounds, and are seeing improvements daily. Soon she will be able to have a conversation, they hope.
If her progress continues, doctors hope she could be home in Alexandria in 12 months.
First, she faces further liposuction and surgery to remove excess skin, with surgery beginning in August and likely to take up to four months to complete.
Physios set a three-month goal for Ms El Aty to be able to sit up and feed herself with her right hand. She has already achieved that goal. “When I first saw Eman, she had only slight movement, so we have worked on that,” said Praveen Edogali, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital.
“It is a trial-and-error process, but Eman is getting stronger every day with 30-minute programmes at a time.”