A 12-year-old girl from Delhi got a new lease of life by a team of doctors of city-based Sir Ganga Ram Hospital who removed two football-sized tumours weighing 5 kg from her stomach which she was carrying for the past few years.

The girl, whose name is withheld on request from the hospital, visited the hospital with complaints of abdominal distension which was associated with mild pain. The abdominal swelling started 4-5 years back and was slowly increasing in size. It started rapidly increasing in size from the last year and started causing discomfort to the girl and she was having pain and difficulty in breathing. Due to fear of the COVID-19 disease, the patient's family reportedly did not approach any hospital to seek medical care.

In March, the family finally visited sir Ganga Ram hospital and met Dr Tarun Mittal (laparoscopic and bariatric surgeon) Department of General and Laparoscopic Surgery one week back from the surgery. "At that time her abdomen was grossly distended and a huge lump was felt encompassing the full abdomen during clinical examination. We were surprised that the swelling has reached such a huge size without causing many complaints", Mittal said.

"An urgent CT scan was done to find the nature and origin of the swelling which showed a large lobulated mass (30x20x14cm) in the retroperitoneal area. After proper evaluation and counselling of the parents and the girl, surgery was planned and the two tumours were operated on March 25 with full precautions", the surgeon said. "During surgery, it was confirmed that a large retroperitoneal mass was present occupying whole of the abdominal cavity and was densely adherent to vital structures including large blood vessels and intestine".

"Utmost precautions were taken that vital structures including blood vessels and intestine are not injured during the surgery", Mittal said. In a successful surgery that lasted three hours, the doctor said the tumour was removed totally. Asked about the current situation of the girl, the doctor told IANS that she underwent an uneventful surgery but now she is perfectly fine and participating in her all-daily work like a healthy person.

The surgical team was led by Tarun Mittal along with Dr Ashish Dey and Dr Anmol Ahuja, and the anaesthetist team included Dr Jayashree Sood and Dr Ajay Sirohi. "The tumour was completely excised and measured 32x22 cm and weighed 5kg. The tumour was sent for histopathological examination. The girl recovered well and was discharged within few days of surgery", the doctor said.