As soon as I got onto the floor for my shift, a fellow scrub tech asked me if I had seen the tumor.  I said, "what tumor".  I had heard nothing of a surgery for a tumor resection that day.  She said, "hurry or you'll miss it".  I started to walk through one of the empty operating rooms and I heard her say from behind me "hurry", as she nudged me along.   "Well",  I thought  "this must be pretty important not to miss".

Normally, we don't go around peeking in other rooms as surgeries are going on but on a few occasions, something so significant happens that you must experience it, if only for the lesson.

I looked in and said "Holy shit".  I then apologized for my words and looked again and said "Oh My God".  I saw a woman lying flat on the operating room table with a belly that stuck out in front of her about 2.5 feet.  This is no joke!  I would have thought she was pregnant with triplets except for the knowledge that was a tumor.  The rest of her body was emaciated as the tumor was sucking all the good stuff that ever entered her body.

Out of respect, I left the window, and went to my work only to be reassigned to that room as assistance.  I entered toward the end of the case.  The tumor was gone and I found out it was a fluid filled cyst that grew on her ovary.  The fluid that was drained (and accounted for) was the equivalent of eleven 2-liter bottles.  The remaining fluid seeped onto the floor.  Eleven  2-liter bottles are estimated to weigh about 60-80 pounds.

Her belly was now sunken in from the extra skin that stretched to accommodate the tumor.  The room had a total of 14 people of staff.  Blankets soaked in tumor fluid covered the floor and the surgical team was exhausted.

The story is this:  the patient, a 38 year old incapacitated woman, was under the care of her sister as she was mostly bed-ridden.  Her skin was damaged, her legs were necrotic, her hair had not been washed in what looked like a few months.   She wore dirty  leg dressings, her feet were swollen and the tissue was dying.  She had lower body edema from carrying around the tumor and not being able to walk.  She was also covered in head lice.

We cleaned her up as best as possible, carefully scrubbing her body and putting new dressings on her legs.   I said, rather under my breath, as I was helping "This looks like abuse".  At that point, the entire staff of people in that room turned their discussion to the patient's abuse and neglect and agreed to contact social services.  I wonder if  had not said that comment if this would have gone unreported.  I'm sure someone would have turned this case in.  More importantly, how do you let someone go that long with a growth in their body and not get it taken care of?

Some people!