Mumbai’s 190-kg man operated successfully, recuperating

MUMBAI - Fifty-three-year-old Nizar Ahmed, weighing 190 kg, was operated upon successfully for weight-loss surgery in a hospital two days after being moved out of his south Mumbai second floor tenement where he had stayed indoors for five years.

“The surgery lasted for nearly three hours. Later, he was taken to the Intensive Care Unit for recovery,” said Mansoor Hassan, Ahmed’s elder brother.

Hassan said Ahmed gained consciousness only Tuesday morning after being operated upon Monday night at Breach Candy Hospital. “He (Ahmed) is glad that the operation was successful and that he will finally get rid of his obesity,” he said.

Doctors treating Ahmed had sought help of the fire brigade to bring him out of his second floor tenement in the congested Muslim-dominated neighbourhood in Dongri.

After having started to gain weight five years back, Ahmed could not stand up even for a minute. He had also developed complications like gout, leading to severe pain in the joints.

He was also suffering from hypertension but luckily not diabetes - which made the surgery a less complicated affair.

The weight-loss surgery that cost Ahmed around Rs.3.5 lakh was borne by state Samajwadi Party president Abu Asim Azmi as Ahmed could not afford the cost of the surgery.

During the last five years, Ahmed spent all his time sitting or lying on the bed either watching TV, praying or simply looking upwards and hoping that some angel would come and give him respite from this misery.

Sanjay Borude, Ahmed’s bariatric surgeon had said the surgery would involve cutting open and sealing of nearly two-thirds of his stomach, which would reduce its intake capacity.

Thereafter, gradually within a year, Ahmed would shed weight and come to a manageable 90 or 100 kg, with no possibility of further weight gain.