An overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who had a 7.8kg of tumor on his abdomen, was saved by surgeons in Abu Dhabi.
James Palalay, 37, had been diagnosed last January with the tumor, which was described by surgeons as big as a five-month-old baby, reported The National.
Dr Salem Al Harithi of the Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City said the size of the tumor seen in his abdomen was rare, risky and inoperable, as it covered his entire abdomen.
“It was huge and most doctors at other hospitals told him to go back to the Philippines to live out the rest of his days. To be fair, it was very big and surgery was risky,” the doctor said.
The procedure was deemed risky as it may have been necessary to also remove his organs that had become attached to the cancerous mass.
“When we opened him there was just this huge mass, which we removed completely without damaging or removing the organs. It went well. Blood loss was minimal,” he added.
Palalay spent five days in the hospital after a successful operation.
“I feel lighter and healthier. When they did the surgery, I cried from joy. I expected the worst and never expected that everything would turn out the way it did,” Palalay said.
