World's Heaviest Woman Has Weight-Loss Surgery In India, Has Already Shed 220 Pounds

An Egyptian believed to be the world’s heaviest woman has successfully undergone weight-loss surgery in India, doctors said Thursday. Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, who previously weighed more than 1,100 pounds, was flown to Mumbai last month from her home in Egypt, which she had not previously left for the past 25 years.

Since arriving at the Saifee Hospital, the 36-year-old had lost more than 220 pounds.

“Eman has lost over 100kg and has been shedding weight gradually on a daily basis with all the treatment and support,” a spokeswoman for Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala, who has been leading the treatment, told AFP.

Read: World's Heaviest Woman? Egyptian Approved For Weight Loss Surgery In India

The bariatric surgery, which shrinks the stomach and is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese, took place Tuesday.

“Eman successfully underwent a Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy on March 7th 2017 at Saifee Hospital. She had an uneventful surgery and anesthesia course,” read a hospital statement. “She is now on oral fluids and accepting them well. The future course of action for the medical team working on her will be to correct all her associated medical problems, to get her fit enough to fly back to Egypt as soon as possible.”

Ahmed was expected to lose more weight in the coming months, a spokesperson told the BBC.

Ahmed, who is from Alexandria, weighed 11 pounds at birth and was diagnosed with elephantiasis, a condition which causes body parts to swell due to parasitic infection. At the age of 11, she suffered a stroke and was left bedridden. Her sister contacted Lakdawala, who is a specialist weight-loss surgeon, last October seeking urgent medical treatment.

After initially being denied a visa to travel to India, her doctor tweeted a plea directly to the country’s foreign minister, who personally intervened.

Ahmed was brought to India on a specially chartered flight before being lifted, along with the bed she traveled on, with the help of a crane to hospital, according to Indian News Agency PTI.

India, which has seen a steep rise in bariatric surgery in recent years due to an increasing obesity problem, is a popular destination for foreigners seeking medical treatment due to low costs and no waiting lists.