A woman from Arizona has finally been freed from her ordeal after a 10-hour long surgery successfully removed the 47-pound tumor in her stomach.
Marcey DiCaro of Tuscon, Arizona, had been grappling with the tumor for nearly two years. In 2012, DiCaro went to get the pain on her right side diagnosed and the scan revealed the liposarcoma growth. Initially, DiCaro was supposed to get the surgery done in 2013; however, her operation had to be stalled because of issues with her health coverage.
In Apr. 2014, thanks to the Affordable Care Act by President Barrack Obama, she was able to get the required health insurance and able to undergo surgery on April 17. However, by this juncture DiCaro's tumor had grown bigger and ended up affecting her inferior vena cava, which is the vein that is responsible for transporting blood from the body to the kidney and the heart.
The surgeons from the University of Arizona Medical Center (UAMC) in Tucson were able to remove the mammoth tumor from DiCaro's stomach despite a few hiccups along the way. DiCaro stopped breathing in between and had a cardiac arrest in the middle of the surgery. The surgeons also needed to remove her gallbladder and kidney as they were encircled by the tumor.
"Because the tumor had been pressing on the vena cava, it created a blood clot in the vein," said Dr. Tun Jie.
Luckily for DiCaro, the tumor did not affect any of her other organs. However, doctors revealed that if she had stalled the surgery further, then the tumor would have become even bigger and likely affected other organs fatally.
"If the tumor had been let go, it would have killed me," DiCaro said. "I am grateful for insurance and I was immensely happy with my care. I felt great confidence in Dr. Jie's abilities. The whole team approach was wonderful. I'm happy to be going on walks and getting back in the pool and getting out and enjoying life."
DiCaro was back home from the hospital after two weeks and is recouping from the surgery, which has given her a new lease of life.
