Egyptian Eman Ahmed Abdulati's journey has been a tough one, but after her >arrival in Abu Dhabi last May, it looks like the 37-year-old is finally headed toward better health.
Doctors in Abu Dhabi expressed confidence in their goal to reduce Abdulati's weight to less than 100 kilograms over the course of a year during a press conference in the emirate on Monday.
The doctors said the 37-year-old, who made her first public appearance in the emirate's capital, has made "remarkable progress" since her arrival.
"Our goal is to give Abdul Atti the best quality of life that is possible, and we are working to help her reduce her body weight to half what it was when she initially arrived," Dr Yassin El Shahat, chief medical officer at Burjeel Hospital, told Gulf News.
Abdulati made it out to the press conference in a special wheelchair, where she can be seen donning a red veil and a lookalike top as she waved at the Egyptian ambassador to the UAE, Wael Mohammad Gad.
The doctors will begin liposuction and removal of excess skin next month.
The details of her weight loss were not revealed during the conference. However, Shahaat said that Abdulati has lost 65 kilograms during her first 10 weeks in the emirate's capital.
Abdulati's journey has not been easy
A few months ago, Egypt's Eman Ahmed Abdulati tipped the scales, weighing over 500 kg, which rendered her unable to move due to a condition she had been living with for over 25 years.
Dubbed the 'world's heaviest woman,' she was >flown to India after a doctor had pledged to help in her journey to weight loss and better health.
Leading authorities, who rejected her visa at first, transported her via an Egypt Air cargo plane.
According to reports, doctors at India's Saifee Hospital in Mumbai had said that Abdulati had lost some 50 kg in less than two weeks since the start of her treatment, which began in February.
She has gone on to lose 327kg, the hospital added, according to The Times Of India.
But, it wasn't all positive news.
These numbers are "lies," Abdulati's sister announced in a >series of photos and a video to Facebook, which ultimately went viral back in April.
Shaimaa Salim accused the doctors caring for her sister of negligence and medical malpractice.
Salim even berated the surgeon who took on the case - Muffazal Lakdawala - and the hospital, saying that the latter had put "Eman on massive medication to stop her brain activity."
Following the outrage, the hospital's chief operating officer Huzaifa Shehabi >dismissed the allegations and reassured that Abdulati's weight was reduced to less than 200 kg.
One of the doctors, Aparna Govil Bhasker - who was heavily involved in the case since the beginning - dropped the case following the allegations.
"I hereby resign from the care of Eman Abdulati with immediate effect," Aparna Govil Bhasker wrote in a post at the time.
"I had thought that Eman's case would go down in annals of medicine as one of the biggest medical challenges overcome. I feel extremely saddened today that though that challenge have been overcome, it has created history - but of a very different kind [sic]."
But, now it seems there is renewed hope. Here's to more progress and more public appearances!