NEW DELHI: A 36-year-old Egyptian woman, said to be the heaviest in the world at 500 kg, or half a ton, was refused a visa to India for medical treatment, that is, until her doctor brought it to the notice of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, via, what else, but Twitter.

Yesterday, Dr. Muffi Lakdawala, a bariatric surgeon in Mumbai, tweeted the minister saying: "Ma'am , Eman Ahmed (Egypt) 500kgs requested me 2 save her pls help me get her a medical visa as refused thru normal process"

Swaraj,Swaraj, who's been in Delhi hospital AIIMS for several days now with kidney failure, replied to the doctor on the same day. She said: "Thanks for bringing this to my notice. We will definitely help her."

The 36-year-old, Iman Ahmad Abdulati - whose name is spelt 'Iman' according to an Al Arabiya.net report from last month - lives in Alexandria, Egypt. She has not left her house since she tipped the scales at 500 kg, almost 25 years ago, when she was 11 years old. She's unable to move or to even roll over in bed, Al Arabiya.net wrote.

Physicians told the web site that she suffers from a disruption of the glands as well as from a parasite called elephantiasis. The former causes her body to store huge amounts of water and the latter causes extreme swelling. The combination of these two things has meant a huge amount of excess weight.

Abdulati's problems began at birth. She weighed as much as 5 kg when she was born. With her little legs unable to support her weight, she learned to crawl around as a baby. By the time she was 11, not much had changed except she'd gained even more weight and still had to resort to crawling.

That was when she dropped out of school. Soon after, she suffered a cerebral stroke that has left her bedridden until today.