Eman Ahmed, who weighed around 500 kg when she was flown in from Egypt in February this year, has since lost at least 242 kg, according to her doctors in Mumbai. Eman currently weighs less than 270 kg — half her previous weight.

“After the surgery, she is regularly doing over two hours of physiotherapy, which has really helped bring down her weight,” said a doctor attached with the team treating her at Saifee Hospital.

According to Dr Aparna Bhasker, bariatric surgeon and part of the medical team, Eman has lost 242 kg since February 10 when she was first carried out of her first floor flat in Alexandria (Egypt) using a crane and airlifted to India 5,000 km away.

She underwent a bariatric procedure called laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy on March 7, in which surgeons reduced her stomach size by 75 per cent in a one-and-a-half-hour-long operation. Prior to that, she had already shed 120 kg through a controlled high-protein and high-fibre diet that nutritionists had especially designed for her.

“Usually, weight reduction does not happen this fast. In her case, the diet designed after her surgery is responsible,” said intensivist Dr Kamlesh Bohra. The 36-year-old woman suffers from a rare genetic disorder, which is responsible for her obesity. Gene tests carried out by a US-based firm showed that Eman had mutations in LEPR gene that confused her brain signals about hunger, leading to excessive intake of food.

Eman also suffered strokes and two to three seizures in the last two months, and remains paralysed on the right side. To assess her brain and know what caused the seizures, doctors will have to wait until she can fit into a CT scan machine. But there’s something that “worries” Bohra more, he said smilingly.

“Eman has been missing Egypt and wants to return. We had planned to send her back by April-end but she may need another month’s hospitalisation,” he said. She sometimes gets very angry and does not talk with anyone. Doctors said this could be due to this homesickness.

While Eman, and her much thinner frame, is able to sit on the hospital bed, she requires to be fed and continues to face trouble in standing and walking. Since she remained bed-ridden for two years, that changed the alignment of her feet, according to the doctors. Her leg muscles have not been used for too long and will need exercise to get toned. 

“We don’t have a lot of reference cases to compare her case with. Losing over 200 kg may seem surprising but her weight has been steadily reducing since she was hospitalised,” said nephrologist Dr Hemal Shah.

Eman suffers from thyroid and kidney dysfunction, apart from a series of medical complications, that led to swelling and water retention in her body. According to Shah, her kidney functions have greatly improved.

“Her metabolism has improved, she is burning calories. Because her kidney functions have become better, she is able to pass urine normally and that has reduced water retention in body,” Shah said. 

The doctors at Saifee Hospital led by Muffazal Lakdawala have till now managed to raise Rs 21 lakh for her treatment.