Doctors at Gandhi Hospital on Saturday removed a 11 kg ovarian tumour from a 30-year-old woman whose abdominal distension was mistaken for pregnancy.
The woman, a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar who is living as a refugee at a camp in Balapur, had first arrived at Osmania General Hospital about a week ago where volunteers of a local NGO, Helping Hand Foundation, assisted her with diagnosis. When an ultrasound scan was performed at the hospital the tumour was identified.
“The woman who is separated from her husband for about seven months now, thought she was pregnant all the while.
When she came to the hospital last week, the distension had progressed to such an extent that it was causing breathlessness,” said HHF’s Mujtaba Hasan Askari.
According to Mr. Askari, OGH refused to treat the patient fearing complexity of the case. A private hospital too refused to perform the surgery following which she was brought to the Gandhi Hospital. A team of four surgeons of the General Surgery department performed the surgery.
Mr. Askari compared the tumour’s size to that of two footballs. The foundation arranged for the surgery and has also taken up the woman’s post-surgery expenses.
“Since it grew gradually, the woman may have got used to it. The removal of the tumour from left ovary was performed without any complications,” said S.V. Masood, in-charge superintendent of the hospital, who also headed the surgical team. “Though ovarian tumours tend to be large, we have not removed a tumour of this size in the recent past,” he added.
Dr. Masood further said the tumour will be tested for malignancy though there do not appear to be any such symptoms in the woman. He said the tumour measures 48 cm by 24 cm.
