Medicine: Texas Tumor

Of all human diseases, few produce more fantastic results than a cystic tumor of the ovary: as it fills with fluid, such a tumor may grow to monstrous proportions. The archives are inconclusive as to the biggest tumor ever recorded, but last week Dr. Dan H. Eames Jr. of La Marque, Texas achieved an unquestioned record of the size of a tumor removed intact: 184 lbs.

The patient, a 42-year-old woman, had trouble squeezing through the doors of Surgeon Eames’s clinic. Dr. Eames faced a hard decision. One school of surgeons holds that it is too dangerous to remove a big tumor intact because this may throw the patient into shock; another holds that it is more dangerous to drain the tumor first and then remove the husk, because fluid containing malignant cells may spill into the abdominal cavity. Surgeon Eames decided to run the risk of shock, try to get the tumor out unbroken and undrained.

Easier said than done. His first 3-ft. incision along the woman’s abdomen was not enough. He had to make a T-shaped incision and fold back huge flaps of abdominal wall. Then he was able to roll out the tumor—a purplish, egg-shaped mass almost 3 ft. long. The patient’s circulation faltered only for a moment when she was rolled onto her back. Now, Dr. Eames told the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, she is back in the fields as a migrant harvest hand.