Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, who was once believed to be the world’s heaviest woman, died on Monday, September 25, due to complications from her weight, including heart disease and kidney malfunction. She was 37.
In February, Abd El Aty, who had a rare thyroid condition, was airlifted from her home in Egypt to India for laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery. At the time, she weighed 1,102 pounds and was unable to move because of her weight and a debilitating stroke she had suffered. The trip was the first time Abd El Aty had left her house in 25 years, The Independent reported. Locals built a special bed with wheels that could carry her weight and then she was lifted by cranes into a plane.
Abd El Aty’s body mass index was 252. According to the World Health Organization guidelines, people with a BMI of 30 or higher are considered obese.
“Eman didn’t live life as everyone does,” her sister Shaimaa Ahmed told CNN in December 2016. “She didn’t enjoy her childhood or youth. She’s been battling with her illness for 36 years.”
But things were finally looking up for Abd El Aty. She lost more than 700 pounds in two months under the care of doctors at Saifee Hospital in Mumbai and then in April she was transferred to Burjeel Hospital in the UAE to be closer to her family, per The Washington Post.
Abd El Aty celebrated her 37th birthday on September 9.
