Eman Ahmed, 36, has been struggling with her weight and battling a thyroid condition ever since she was born.
At birth, Ahmed already weighed 11 pounds. Within the first 11 years of her life, she was already beginning to gain noticeable weight for her age and by the time she was in 5th grade, her weight and health conditions were making her so lethargic that her parents decided to take her out of school.
As time passed, the problem only continued to get worse.
Ahmed’s legs gradually began to give out, unable to support her growing bulk, and she would be forced to use her knees to get around – even if she was trying to move across the pavement of a parking lot. Her sister recalled, “She wasn't able to walk properly and there was no wheelchair to fit her size.”
In spite of all this, Ahmed managed to remain positive and cheerful, hopeful, even, that one day her weight would plateau and she would be able to begin losing it over time.
This positivity remained intact until Ahmed suffered from a stroke two years ago.
She weighed 600 pounds at this point, and the stroke caused her to lose what little ability she had left to move, as well as her ability to communicate.
In these two years, Ahmed’s weight ballooned. Now, her family believes she weighs 1,102 pounds.
The family has since taken to social media to share her story, in hopes of gathering enough support and attention from strangers across the world to get Ahmed to receive the proper medical attention she needs to lose weight.
Their hard work recently paid off: a surgeon in Mumbai, Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala, has agreed to see Ahmed and perform two life-saving surgeries on her. These procedures would, ultimately, help Ahmed shed over 800 pounds and greatly improve her mobility.
People around the world have been reaching out to the Ahmed family and providing what help they can give to transport Ahmed from Egypt to India. Dr. Lakdawala has arranged an all-woman transportation team in a special helicopter to move Ahmed and even wrote to India’s external affairs minister to ask for Ahmed’s visa approval to be expedited.
For the first time in years, Ahmed and her family now have concrete reason to look forward to the future. Ahmed’s visas were collected earlier this week, and she will make her trip to India for her life-saving surgeries soon.
