Egypt’s Eman Ahmed, World’s Heaviest Woman, Undergoes Successful Surgery

Doctors in India have performed a successful weight reduction surgery on Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty who is believed to be the world’s heaviest woman.

Doctors at Mumbai’s Saifee Hospital carried out a laparoscopic sleeve gastrostomy, a surgical weight-loss procedure that reduces the size of the stomach to 15 percent of its original size, on Eman March 7th, according to Hindustan Times. Doctors also removed a large portion of the 36-year-old’s stomach fat and limited her food consumption ability.

Before her surgery, Eman was believed to weight about 1,000 pounds (500 kg), but her doctors say she has shed nearly 100 kg or 220 lbs following the surgery.

In December, Face2Face Africa reported that Eman, who has been bedridden for much of her adult life due to complications from her immense weight, would be traveling to Mumbai after an online campaign to save her life got the attention of Dr. Muffazzal Lakdawala, a leading Indian weight-reduction surgeon who offered to treat her.

In an interview after Tuesday’s operation, Dr. Lakdawala told CNN the operation was a success, “She is very happy, she started dancing in her bed,” adding that “her smile has come back.”

Dr. Lakdawala says Eman’s prognosis is good and she is doing well in post-operative care, “Her parameters are all stabilized, kidney is much better, electrolytes are much better. She has done well post-surgery; she’s back in her room and taking liquids.”

Officials at Saifee Hospital say they are currently monitoring Eman’s condition, adding that she will be flown back to her home in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria to continue recovering in the coming months.

“Once she is stable, she will return to her hometown and her weight loss progress will be tracked by the team of doctors. She has already lost over 100 kg with the help of liquid diet, including protein and fibre supplements, and we are hoping that she will lose another 100 kg during the course of 6-8 months,” one of the doctors treating Eman said.

Eman is scheduled for at least another round of surgical procedures in the coming year. Dr. Lakdawala believes it will take two operations and at least three and half years to bring her weight to under 220 pounds (100 kg), allowing her to bend from the waist.

As a child, Eman had a thyroid abnormality. At age 11, she suffered from obesity-related lymphoedema, which causes gigantic swelling of legs. She later took to crawling as her limbs could no longer support her enormous weight.

Eman’s remained bed ridden for years as her poor family could not afford to seek medical assistance. Much of the money for her travel expenses has come from donations made to an online crowd funding campaign started by her sister and the Saifee Hospital Trust.

In February, she was flown to India in a cargo plane specially adapted to carry her as she could not fit in to a conventional passenger airline or air ambulance. It was her first journey outside her house in more than two decades.