‘Heaviest’ woman Eman dies in UAE

Abu Dhabi, September 25

Eman Abdul Atti, a 37-year-old Egyptian national once believed to be the ‘world’s heaviest woman’, died today in a hospital in the UAE due to complications from her weight, the hospital said.

Eman weighed roughly 500 kg when she arrived in India in February, but had lost an astonishing 323 kg after undergoing a series of medical procedures.

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She died at the Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi due to complications from the underlying comorbid conditions, including heart disease and kidney dysfunction, according to medical experts at the hospital.

In medicine, comorbidity is the presence of one or more additional diseases or disorders co-occurring with a primary disease or disorder. Eman had been admitted at Burjeel hospital on May 4 after arriving in the UAE from India.

She had been under the supervision of over 20 doctors from different specialities, who were managing her medical condition. Initially, she underwent treatment at the Saifee Hospital in Mumbai for severe obesity.

Eman underwent bariatric surgery in March in India in which doctors reduced the size of her stomach by two-thirds, so as to reduce her food intake. Her genetic tests had showed that she had a rare gene mutation that cannot be cured through surgery.

Bariatric surgery, also known as weight loss surgery, is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese—having a body mass index of 40 or above, or 35 plus other obesity-related health conditions. Her treatment in India was abruptly stopped after her sister Shaimaa, on social media, alleged that Eman was not receiving proper treatment. She had alleged that the doctors at Saifee, made “false claims” about Eman’s recovery and weight loss.

Eman, a resident of Alexandria in Egypt, had not stepped out of her house for more than two decades due to her obese condition followed by a stroke that left her paralysed on one side a year ago. She had celebrated her 37th birthday on September 9, surrounded by family and friends. Eman’s problems appeared at birth when she was born overweight and continued to grow rapidly, struggling to walk even as a young girl. She never attended school because of her size, and doctors believe her condition is caused by a fluid retention problem, meaning that large amounts of extra water are being retained in her body. — PTI