Kevin Daly worked hard to lose 34 pounds after he noticed he had grown a beer belly, but he soon realized that the size of his belly was not shrinking at all.
“I don’t even like beer,” he explained to the New York Daily News. “I was lean. I’m 6’3″ and very athletic.”
The financial planner dropped the weight after he had open heart surgery in 2015, but he was shocked to see he looked the same size.
“I thought they literally left stuffing and tools in me from surgery,” the 63-year-old man told the newspaper.
Convinced that something was wrong, Daly visited his doctor and begged for a CT scan — and even though his insurance provided objected, the scan ultimately saved his life.
Fox News reports, “The financial planner, from Hoboken, N.J., was eventually diagnosed with liposarcoma — a rare cancer that develops in the fat cells of soft tissue.”
With liposarcoma, patients can gain up to 20 pounds, but if the tumor is growing in the abdomen, it is hard to detect. Most patients may think they are just gaining weight.
“It was the largest tumor I’ve removed. It was a very challenging operation,” Dr. Julio Teixeira, Daly’s surgeon, said in a statement. “Because of the tumor size, there were organs out of position.”
“It’s one thing to see the picture. It’s another thing to actually have it in your hands,” he said.
Lenox Hill Hospital
The tumor was reportedly triple the size that the doctors expected, and it was wrapped around one of Daly’s kidneys.
The mass was supposedly growing inside of Daly’s stomach for roughly 15 years.
Following the surgery, Daly has gone back to his normal size and his organs are back in place. “Before the surgery, my left descending colon was pushed under my sternum. I could touch it through my skin to make my food digest.”
Dr. William Huang told Fox News, “As they grow, they initially displace or push away neighboring organs. However, once they reach a size that results in compression or involvement of adjacent organs, then they can cause discomfort or symptoms.”
–The Horn editorial team