Surgeons remove 68-pound tumor from woman's stomach

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: Some readers may find the next image disturbing. (Central European News)

Pic shows: the extracted tumor; Doctors have removed a 31-kilogramme tumour the size of a space hopper from a middle-aged womanâs stomach. The huge 68-lb growth was heaved out of Stoja Popovic, after the woman had let it grow and grow without ever going to the doctorâs. The woman from Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina had flat-out refused to go, despite growing concerns from friends and family about the huge formation that had starting to protrude from her belly over the years. She explained: "At first I tough I was putting on weight, but very soon I realised there was something wrong. But I didn't feel pain... so I just continued to live as usual." However one day, she got injured working on a field and needed treatment for her leg. An ambulance crew arrived but they were much more concerned about her massive stomach than her leg and decided to take her to hospital. Experts at the Bosnian University Clinical Center in the capital Sarajevo said the tumour had to be removed immediately. Medics quoted in local media said that the growth had started in one of her ovaries before slowly taking up her whole uterus - which was also removed in the surgery - and continuing to expand to its humongous size. After a four-hour operation, a team led by surgeon Zoran Anicic and gynaecologist Vesna Ecim-Zlojutro, both doctors in University Clinic Center in Banja Luka, removed the big round tumour. Stoja is now recovering from the surgery at home after having spent a few days at hospital. Stoja told local media: "I would have never gone to a doctor if I hadnât hurt my leg." A statement from the hospital read: "The diagnosis confirmed the existence of a tumour of a large size inside her abdomen. Due to the extensive surgery, several specialists from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology were included in the team as well as some from the Clinic for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The surgery lasted four hours and ended successfully." (Central European News)

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.