World’s heaviest woman Eman Ahmed loses 140kg in 5 weeks in India, weighs 358kg
Egyptian Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, the world’s heaviest woman, has lost 140kgs since undergoing a weight-loss procedure in Mumbai in February. She will lose 20-30 kg a month over the next few months.
The world’s heaviest woman Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, who weighted 498 kg when she arrived in India from Egypt for weight-loss surgery on February 11, has lost 140 kg 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 weight loss is mostly because of rapid water loss, but she is now able to sit up with support. Now the weight loss will fall to 20-30 kg a month over the next few months,” said her surgeon Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, chairperson of Institute of minimal access surgical sciences, Saifee Hospital.
The 36-year-old, who was too obese to move and hadn’t left her room in her home in Alexandria in 25 years, arrived in India on a special cargo plane and was moved to her hospital bed from the airport in a truck and a crane.
“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 in the near future,” said Dr Lakdawala.
Dr Lakdawala was also the surgeon of Daulataram Jogawat, the 180-kg Madhya Pradesh police inspector who was body-shamed by Shobhaa De on twitter on February 27.
Diet
Since surgery, Eman’s been on the following special diet:
Eman is on a two-hourly liquid feeding regime that begins at 6 am and ends at midnight. She is fed through a tube as she has trouble swallowing because of a stroke three years ago.
She is being fed low-sodium protein powder mixed with soya milk. To ensure she gets adequate calories, 45 ml of MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) oil is mixed in her food. MCT oil is a form of saturated fatty acid that is a biologically inert easily-metabolised energy source used to treat malnutrition, malabsorption and other gut disorders.
Eman’s total daily caloric intake is around 1,800 calories, which includes 200 gm of protein.
Recovery
Her poor health because of her obesity and stroke continues to be a challenge. A stoke three years ago impaired her speech, her ability to swallow (she coughs when she drinks water) 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.
On arrival, a team of doctors across seven specialties – surgery, nutrition, physiotherapy, endocrinology, nephrology, neurology and genetics – closely monitored her health and drew up a plan to help her lose weight.
“She has severe core pulmonale (right-sided heart failure). Her treatment with diuretics and protein-therapy continues, but her uric acid levels remain a challenge,” said Dr Lakdawala.
On February 13, her gene samples were sent to the US to undergo a 36-genes panel test for monogenic obesity called ObèCORE that will determine whether her weight gain is caused by genetic diseases such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Cohen syndrome, Alstrom syndrome, and Prader-Willi. “The results of the genetic tests are still expected from the US,” said Dr Lakdawala.
“Physiotherapy and stabilising other medical and hormonal factors are continuing to get her fit to fly safely back to Egypt as soon as the team deem fit,” said Dr Lakdawala. “Our target is to have her sitting up in bed without support with her legs hanging down before she leaves.”
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