In this new age of virtual media and popular headline making capability of anything and everything, has served us with many interesting facts and news, that we are astounded to hear or read about.
Many of us may or may not remember Arya Permana, a ten year old boy from Karawang in West Java, Indonesia, who made headlines back then as he won the title of ‘World’s fattest boy’. Yes, back then he was just ten and weighed 190kg.
He weighed just the same as six or seven boys together, of his own age. His life never was easy with the title though. He has to spent days lying down as it became difficult for him to walk and even study. He was at that time too morbidly obese.
Last year, in April, Arya went through a life altering surgery. He became the youngest person in the whole world to undergo a five hour long surgery, which was life saving as well as very risky. The gastric sleeve operation was done to remove a large portion of his stomach.
Before he went through this surgery, it was difficult for him to play even, his life was not like any other ten year old. The Indonesian World Records Museum (MURI) gave Arya the title for being the heaviest boy in the world.
Before the surgery he used to have five meals a day and now even five spoonfuls are enough. This also restricts him from having soft drinks as well. His parents, Ade and Rokayah Soemantri were convinced that their son needed a surgery.
Arya lost 70lbs (31kg), which is nearly a sixth of his weight. The surgeons at the Omni Hospital, Jakarta wants him to loose 220lbs (100kg) more, that too within twelve months.
His father said in an interview ‘Every time he had two packets of noodles and two eggs. More than half a kilo of chicken and then there was rice. This could be four to six times a day’. He further added ‘The saddest thing was watching Arya try to get up. He would get out of breath just walking five metres. We were very worried.’
Now, they are happy that their child will be leading a normal and healthy life though he lost the title. Arya became a celebrity back then. The boy’s diet now doesn’t include carbs or sugar but milk and four tablespoons of rice only. He is happy and doing just fine.