When two years ago, 47-year-old Hector Hernandez from California began to gain weight rapidly, he had no idea that he was in mortal danger. The more that he heard from the doctor that he was simply quite overweight. The truth turned out to be completely different. The cause of the growing belly was discovered by a second doctor, saving the American’s life.
Hector Hernandez has always belonged to people of “the right stature”, therefore his growing belly did not initially disturb him. Soon friends started joking about the man’s “beer belly”. After a while, he began to attract the attention of strangers. This finally made the man vigilant – he decided to go to the doctor. The more so because only the stomach was getting bigger – the arms and legs were getting slimmer. After all, the weight reached 135 kg and was still growing. In the office, a man heard that “some kilograms are broken down differently” and he himself is seriously overweight.
Increasingly, however, the American was tired of flatulence, constipation, heartburn, and sometimes he could not catch his breath. On top of that, the stomach was hard and kept growing. A visit to another specialist saved Hernandez’s life.
It turned out that the cause of the enlarging abdomen was not obesity, but a huge cancerous lesion – a liposarcoma weighing 35 kg (it developed from fat cells in the abdominal cavity behind the peritoneum).
The surgeon who performed the tumor resection, Dr. William Tseng of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, admitted that he had never removed such a large liposarcoma.
The story of Hector Hernandez is a warning to observe your body and as soon as we notice that it changes in an unusual way or we simply have doubts about our health – be sure to see a doctor.
Comp. on the basis of health.gazeta.pl