Doctors remove large tumour from woman’s neck

LUCKNOW: The doctors of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) saved the life of a woman by removing a large tumour arising from her thyroid gland. Such was the size of the tumour that it had also spread to the vein leading to the heart.

“The 50-year-old woman is safe now as the tumour has been removed. If delayed, the tumour would have blocked blood flow in her vein resulting in paralysis of some part of the body or even heart problems,” said Prof AA Sonkar, head of department, general surgery. Assistant professor Kul Ranjan, Dr Mallika and Dr Shefali too were part of the operating team.

The tumor had dangerously spread from the right side of the patient’s neck, with visible swelling near the collarbone. When the doctors had examined the woman, a native of Maharajganj, they had warned her that the operation had risks and that her right hand could get paralysed even after the removal of the tumor.

“It was tough to remove tumor from the neck area as well as the vein. We had to go for cut open surgery, which was risky as the vein led to the heart. We had to make sure that it did not spread to other linked veins,” said Sonkar.

The operation, performed last week, has been declared successful and the woman is normal. “She will be discharged today,” said Prof Kul Ranjan, addressing a press conference on Monday.

The entire procedure, which could have cost anything above Rs 50,000 in a private sector hospital, was performed for just Rs 4,000 at the medical university, inclusive of the hospital stay.

The women will however now be required to go for radioactive iodine therapy to destroy the remaining cancer cells.