130-pound tumor removed from man who'd been told it was just fat

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A California doctor removed a 130-pound tumor from a Mississippi man who’d been told by other physicians he was just fat.

Roger Logan, 57, had the non-cancerous growth removed on Jan. 31 at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, where he will remain for another week or so before returning to Gulfport, Mississippi.

The tumor probably started as an ingrown hair that became infected, swelled and developed its own blood supply, Logan’s surgeon, Dr. Vipul Dev, told the Bakersfield Californian.

Logan says he first noticed the growth 15 year ago, but doctors told him it was just fat, reports CBS Bakersfield affiliate KBAK-TV. It kept getting larger until he couldn’t get out of bed without help from his wife, the station says.         

The tumor grew so massive that it hung to the floor when he sat.

“I used to equate it, you just put a strap around your neck and carry three bags of cement around with you all day long, just swinging,” Logan said.

Virtually unable to move, he spent most of his time in a recliner in one room of his home.

By the time the tumor reached 130 to 140 pounds, doctors told Logan it was too risky for him to have surgery, giving him only a 50 percent chance of surviving it.

But his wife, Kitty, scoured the country for specialists to perform the operation and found Dev, who had performed similar surgeries.

“She just kept pushing,” Logan told the Californian. “She wouldn’t let me quit.”

Logan finally made the 2,000-mile, 40-hour trip to Central California with his chair bolted to the floor of a cargo van, “just like I was in my living room at home,” Logan told the paper.

An operation like the one Logan had can cause massive blood loss, blood clots, pulmonary complications or a urinary tract infection, Dev said.

Logan is now recovering and, last Thursday, was able to walk for practically the first time in years.

“My feet are together,” Logan said, wiggling his toes in his hospital bed. “They haven’t been together in years.”

He’ll need physical therapy to continue his walking, but doctors are optimistic he will make a full recovery, KBAK says.

Logan says he’s looking forward to returning home and resuming his life, out of an armchair.