Saudi woman sheds 151kg weight at Kerala hospital

The 31-year-old was admitted to the hospital with paranoid schizophrenia, an eating disorder characterised by binge eating.

Eight months ago when a Saudi Arabian woman reached a rehab centre in Kerala, she weighed about 326kg. Today, 31-year-old Lamia is all smiles as she managed to shed 151kg of her weight before flying back home.

According to Manorama Online, When Lamia landed in India, she could only crawl to move around as she was unable to stand and also suffered from a mental condition. Lamia was admitted to the Santhula Trust Hospital in Kerala where she underwent the first phase of her extensive treatment.

Lamia was accompanied by her father, Abdul Rahman, and brother Issam on the flight to Kerala. Rahman, a retired teacher who worked at Riyadh government service said that they came to know about the hospital from one of their maids who is a native of Kerala and gathered more information from the internet.
Lamia's family then got a consent certificate from the hospital to secure a visa for treatment and flew her down making special arrangements in the business class of the Saudi Airlines. From the Cochin International Airport, Lamia was transported to the Santhula Trust Hospital in an ambulance.
Fr Edward George, clinical psychologist and the director of Santhula, said that Lamia was admitted to the hospital with paranoid schizophrenia, a condition where main symptom is auditory illusions and bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder characterised by binge eating. The level of haemoglobin was critically low at the time of her admission.
Allopathic treatment and medicines were given for mental illness and other health problems, while a homeopathic regime was followed to reduce Lamia's body weight. A team of expert doctors and nursing staff led by Dr Nishad Koya, Lft Col Dr Vinod Raghavan, Dr Dhanya Unmesh and nursing superintendent Bindu P Abraham took care of Lamia's extensive treatment at Santhula.

Post the first phase of treatment, Lamia has been prescribed a special diet chart and other instructions to further reduce her body weight. The family left for Saudi Arabia happy and satisfied and said they would return for the next phase of treatment after six months, the report added.

• Saudi Arabia
• India