UK – Independent, May 31, 2025
Laila’s daughter Sanaa said it was a ‘miracle’ her mother survived the night.
The mother of jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah is at risk of “sudden death” due to her ongoing hunger strike, doctors have warned, as her blood sugar levels dropped so low they can no longer be detected.
Laila Soueif, 69, was hospitalised on Friday after resuming a full hunger strike, which she first started in September last year.
Ms Soueif has been on hunger strike for 244 days and has lost 36kg – over 40 per cent of her bodyweight – to campaign for Alaa’s release from prison in Egypt, where the writer and human rights defender has been held for over a decade in total. He was most recently detained for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.
On Friday, doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital in London said her blood sugar level had fallen to such a dangerously low level that it is undetectable by standard medical tests. They also reported her ketone levels, which indicate blood acidity, had risen so high they too could not be measured by hospital equipment.
They warned she is now at risk of “sudden death” and irreversible damage to critical organs, including the heart, brain and kidneys.
“Your low blood sugar remains an unaddressed medical emergency and I am anxious that just a slight further reduction could result in rapid loss of consciousness, and even death,” one of the attending doctors wrote.
