MUMBAI, India (AFP) – Indian doctors put an Egyptian believed to be the world’s heaviest woman on a special liquid diet Monday as they prepared her for an emergency weight-loss operation.
Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty weighs around 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) and had not left her house in more than two decades until arriving in Mumbai at the weekend for bariatric surgery.
Doctors said the 37-year-old would be fed only liquid supplements for the next 25 days to help her lose the 50 kilograms required before they can begin operating.
“Only after all the diseases related to obesity are brought under control and Eman loses weight will we conduct the surgery,” Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala told reporters, adding the procedure would take two and a half hours.
The specialist weight-loss surgeon said he and his team at Mumbai’s Saifee hospital hoped the surgery would help Abd El Aty shed another 150 kilograms. It would allow her to sit up and feed herself, something not possible in her present state.
Lakdawala said if the initial treatment was successful then doctors could use surgery to bring Abd El Aty’s weight down to under 100 kilograms in a couple of years’ time.