World’s heaviest woman loses 140kg

NEW DELHI: The world’s heaviest woman Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty (36), who weighed 498kg when she arrived here from Egypt for weight-loss surgery on February 11, has lost 140kg in five weeks.

She underwent a laparoscopic weight-loss procedure called sleeve gastrectomy at Mumbai’s Saifee Hospital on March 7 to reduce the size of her stomach to less than 15% of its original size.

The 10-day follow up shows her weight is 358 kg.

“The loss is mostly because of rapid water loss, but she is now able to sit up with support. The weight loss will fall to 20-30 kg a month over the next few months,” said Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, chairperson, Institute of minimal access surgical sciences, Saifee Hospital.

“She has done extremely well post surgery, but continues to remain on tube feeds because she has difficulty in swallowing fluids due to a previous stroke she had some years ago. We expect no major surgical intervention,” said Dr Lakdawala.

Her poor health because of her obesity and stroke continues to be a challenge. A stroke three

years ago impaired her speech, her ability to swallow and made the right side of her body weak.

She has obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, severe core pulmonale and gout.