Mary Clancey says she was resigned to being a plump old lady. Over 15 years she kept getting bigger despite dieting. But with her health deteriorating, her son persuaded her to go to the hospital.
What doctors found astounded them: She wasn’t fat; a cyst in one of her ovaries had grown into a 140-pound tumor.
Doctors at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown operated on her in November.
Going in, she weighed 365 pounds. After five hours in surgery, she lost 180 pounds of tumor and tissue, about half her weight.
The 71-year-old woman from St. Clair, Pennsylvania, spent almost a month in recovery but is home now, working to regain her balance as a lighter woman.
She weighs less than 150 pounds.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.