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Doctor removes 60kg tumour from Mississippi man

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Surgical instruments – iStock
Surgical instruments – iStock

A California doctor removed a 130-pound (60kg) tumour from a Mississippi man who had been told by other physicians that he was just fat.

Infected ingrown hair

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 tumour 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.

It sprouted from his lower abdomen more than a decade ago.

Doctors told him: "You're just fat; it's just fat," Logan told KERO-TV in Bakersfield.

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

Read: 90kg tumour removed

"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 a room in his home.

'She wouldn't let me quit'

By the time the tumour 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.

Logan is recovering, and is now 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 is looking forward to returning home and resuming his life.

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