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A woman who avoided treatment for a growing abdominal tumor recently had the 68-pound mass removed and is recovering.

Central European News (CEN) reported that Stoja Popovic, from Bosnia and Herzegovnia, had refused to go to the doctor ever since she realized the protruding mass was unusual.

"At first I thought I was putting on weight, but very soon I realized there was something wrong. But I didn't feel pain ... so I just continued to live as usual,” she told CEN.

But when she suffered a leg injury while working in the fields, paramedics took her to the hospital to get her treatment.

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Doctors at the Bosnian University Clinical Centre in Sarajevo were less concerned with the unrelated leg injury but deemed the tumor life threatening. They removed the mass immediately, as it had consumed Popovic’s entire uterus and started spreading to other parts of her body. Surgeons also had to remove her uterus.

After the successful four-hour operation, Popovic spent a few days at the hospital then was discharged.

"I would have never gone to a doctor if I hadn’t hurt my leg,” she told local media, according to CEN.