World’s ‘heaviest’ woman dies in Abu Dhabi

NEW DELHI:  Eman Ahmed, the world’s heaviest woman who shed half her weight after weight-loss surgery in India and then flew to Abu Dhabi, has died at 36.

Eman Ahmed had been in Abu Dhabi since May.

Ms. Ahmed weighed around 500 kilograms when she arrived in Mumbai in February from her hometown Alexandria in Egypt.

She reportedly lost 324 kg during her weight-loss treatment. She was put on a special liquid diet at the hospital to reduce her weight enough so that doctors could perform bariatric surgery.

When she left, she weighed around 176 kg. Doctors in Mumbai said she would go through physiotherapy in Abu Dhabi.

Ms Ahmed’s sister had alleged that her treatment in Mumbai had been far short of satisfactory and the family had been misled. She also claimed that the doctors were using her for publicity.

Doctors, however, dismissed the allegations as “complete hogwash”, alleging that the woman only wanted to extend her sister’s stay at the hospital.

Dr. Lakdawala, who supervised her treatment at the Saifee hospital, said the hospital did not charge “a single penny” from Eman’s family. “We have not asked for a single penny from Eman’s family. We are happy that we did bring her weight down,” he had said in response to the family’s charges.

According to Saifee Hospital authorities, Ms. Ahmed’s treatment cost around Rs. 3 crores, of which around Rs. 65 lakh was donated by various people.