World’s former heaviest woman to be transported to Abu Dhabi for life-saving surgery

Doctors have been considering the risks of flying 177 kilogramme Eman Abd El Aty from her Mumbai hospital bed to Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi, against the benefits the surgery will have on the 36-year-old Egyptian’s long term health.

Eman Abd El Aty meets with officials from VPS Healthcare ahead of her move from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi. Courtesy VPS health care

ABU DHABI // A medical team in the capital will perform highly complex surgery to help save the life of what was recently the world’s heaviest women.

A major logistical operation is under way to move Eman Abd El Aty from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi for bariatric surgery.

Doctors have been measuring the risks of flying 177 kilogram Ms El Aty to Burjeel Hospital, against the benefits the surgery will have for the 36-year-old Egyptian’s long-term health.

Ms Abd El Aty’s case has created headlines around the world with a row developing between her family and the Indian hospital treating her.

Her sister, Shaimaa, posted a video on social media claiming she was unable to move or speak since undergoing rapid weight loss – up to 4kg a day after bariatric surgery at Saifee hospital in Mumbai in March.

Reports in India state Ms Abd El Aty, who is believed to have weighed close to 500kg when she first entered hospital, has lost about 330kg but requires further medical procedures in Abu Dhabi before being fit to return home to Alexandria.

Sanet Meyer, director of medevac at Burjeel Hospital, is responsible for bringing Ms Abd El Aty to the capital.

“There are many factors that are being considered ahead of Eman’s safe transportation,” she said. “Loading is vitally important in this process, in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi.

“We have a highly skilled medical support team in place that is assisting in the mission.”

The team will use a Boeing business jet for the move, modified for medical evacuations. A pneumatic high loader similar to a fork-lift truck will carry the patient on and off the aircraft at either end of the journey.

Ambulances fitted with reinforced equipment for obese patients will transport Ms Abd El Aty from hospital in Mumbai to the airport then to Burjeel Hospital.

“This will be a life-changing operation for Eman and she will require an indeterminate period of recovery in Abu Dhabi,” Ms Meyer said.

A stroke left Ms Abd El Aty paralysed on her right side and she suffers seizures as well as other obesity-related health problems, such as hyperthyroidism, renal failure and a severe heart condition. All are being controlled with medication.

Air travel puts her at further risk of neurological complications but doctors said the risk was worth taking for her long-term health.

The family chose a hospital in India to treat Ms Abd El Aty ­after failing to find the right medical help in Egypt.

Doctors in Mumbai wanted to send her home to Egypt to recover but further treatment is required to help her adjust to her rapid weight loss – with further surgery and a long period of ­recovery needed.

After being contacted by her family, Burjeel Hospital offered to provide that treatment if she could be brought to the UAE.

Bariatric surgery is used to treat people who are classed as dangerously obese, usually with a body mass index more than 40 or with other obesity-related health conditions, when all other lifestyle changes and treatments have failed.

VPS Healthcare is covering the costs of the Ms Abd El Aty’s surgery and physiotherapy as part of its corporate responsibility programme.