‘World’s heaviest woman’ to fly to India in order to undergo weight reduction surgery.
An Egyptian citizen who is believed to be the world’s heaviest woman is set to travel to India to undergo weight reduction surgery.
This is after the Indian foreign minister personally intervened to secure her a visa for her India’s trip.
Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty weighs around 500 kilograms or 1,100 pounds.
Hearing about her condition, Indian surgeon Muffazal Lakdawala had offered to carry out the procedure free of charge.
However, her request for a visa was initially rejected, which made Lakdawala to tweet a request for help to India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.
“She is a bundle of diseases. She needs surgery urgently,” the surgeon described of Abd El Aty who is 36 years.
Adb El Aty is expected to fly to the western city of Mumbai next week to undergo the procedure.
“Her sister said she hasn’t left her room in 25 years. I just thought ‘Oh my god, I have to help. I’ll do it pro bono, no problem’,” Lakdawala added.
According to the surgeon, he was astonished when the foreign minister, who is herself ill in hospital awaiting a liver transplant, replied to his plea within hours.
Two months ago, Abd El Aty’s sister had approached him, saying her sister needed urgent medical attention.
The woman’s family told the surgeon that as a child she was diagnosed with elephantiasis, a condition that causes the limbs and other body parts to swell, leaving her almost immobile.
She later suffered a stroke and was become bedridden, triggering her to have a series of ailments including diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension and sleep apnoea.
Lakdawala, who has operated on government ministers in the past, said he was nervous but would do all he could to make the woman comfortable.
“I would be lying if I said I was 100 percent confident. There are many challenges, but I will try my level best to help her,” he told AFP.
He added that Abd El Aty would need to stay in India for a couple of months in post-surgery care before heading back home in Egypt.
Adb El Aty will undergo bariatric surgery, a stomach-shrinking bypass procedure carried out on those wanting to lose excessive weight.
This procedure is increasingly common in India, which has a growing problem with obesity, especially in urban areas.
