Vietnamese man has massive 200-lb tumor removed from leg
(CBS) A Vietnamese man had a 198-pound tumor removed from his right leg on Thursday. Thirty-two-year-old Nguyen Duy Hai had the huge tumor removed during a 12-hour operation, led by an American plastic surgeon.
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The surgery was reportedly successful and the man is recovering at the France-Vietnam Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, according to Tuoitrenews in Vietnam.
Dr. McKay McKinnon, a plastic surgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago, led the team that performed the operation, which was funded through donations.
"It's common for people to fear death, and I'm no exception. But when I heard that Dr. Mc Kinnon had decided to come back to Vietnam one more time to give me a new life, I became more hopeful," Hai told Tuoitrenews.
The surgery had only a 50 percent success rate, according to Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon, chief executive officer of the hospital where the surgery was performed. Guillon told CNN the giant tumor likely developed its own blood system with huge arteries branching out, meaning there were plenty of risks during the procedure.
Even though surgeons managed to remove the tumor, Guillon said the tumor might return at some point, "but we can operate him again, and it won't never reach such a size anymore."
The tumor started growing when Hai was only 4 years old, and doctors eventually amputated his right leg once he was 17 and the tumor weighed more than 55-pounds. But the tumor kept growing, and eventually reached more than 3 feet in diameter, causing lots of pain in daily life.
Click here to see videos of Hai meeting with Dr. McKinnon, and click here to see videos of the actual surgery.
Click here to see videos of the actual surgery.
