Weight loss journey takes bitter turn for Egypt's Eman

Egyptian national Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty weighed 500 kilogrammes (1,100 pounds) when she arrived in Mumbai in February on a specially modified plane to undergo emergency weight-loss surgery.

Doctors said she was able to lose half her weight – around a quarter of a tonne – in the two months since she's been in India for treatment, and videos provided last week by Saifee Hospital, where the 37-year-old had bariatric surgery last month, showed Eman sitting up and smiling.

But a recent Facebook post by Eman's sister Shaimaa Selim on Monday called the doctors "liars", claiming they "put Eman on massive medication to stop her brain activity".

Selim said the problem started when the doctors told her Eman was ready to be discharged because all she needed was "physiotherapy".

"Eman is critical for the past one-and-a-half months and she has been put on massive medication to stop brain activity. Her face and hands are blue," Selim said in the video.

"She is very sick. She suffered thrombosis 10 days ago. It's the second time after she got here," Selim added.

She further alleged Eman is being fed through a feeding tube because of which she is unable to talk or breathe.

"May God forgive them for what they have done. Pray for Eman to leave this place safely and also to cure her," she said in the video.

Local media in India said officials from Saifee Hospital refuted the claims by Eman's sister, adding that the family seeks to delay Eman's discharge because no medical facility in Egypt is able to provide her with free medical care.

Eman's travel, treatment and surgery in India was funded by donations collected worldwide.

She had not left her home in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria for two decades until she arrived in India's commercial capital on February 11.

Eman was put on a special liquid diet to get her weight down to a low enough level for doctors to perform bariatric surgery, essentially a stomach-shrinking bypass procedure carried out on those wanting to lose excessive weight.

The diet helped Eman lose around 100 kilos in a month, allowing doctors to operate on her in early March.

Eman's family say that as a child she was diagnosed with elephantiasis, a condition that causes the limbs and other body parts to swell, leaving her almost immobile.

The Egyptian has suffered several strokes and faced a series of other serious ailments owing to her weight including diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension and sleep deprivation. She is unable to speak properly and is partially paralysed.