Kavita Kalam, 38, in Wardha, India, had spent seven months living with pain that would not go away and with a body she no longer recognized as her own.
Her abdomen had grown to 106 centimeters in circumference, pushed outward by an ovarian cyst that eventually weighed nearly 18 kilograms: 95% of the entire mass in her abdomen. She could not afford a hospital, so she endured it. Breathing became difficult, as did eating, and it was her own neighbors who pooled the money she was lacking for the operation.
When she finally came under the care of Dr. Arpita Jaiswal Singam and Dr. Abhishek Kothule, the medical team found themselves facing one of the largest masses they had seen at that hospital. They removed it intact, without rupturing it, through an incision of just 2 centimeters above the pubic bone. Kavita remained stable and, shortly afterward, ate solid food again for the first time in months.
