When I first saw this patient in June,
2006, she was lying in bed, with a shawl covering her upper chest. I
thought she was nursing a baby, until I took a peak. She had an enormous left breast mass that was
sucking the life out of her. She was too weak to walk. She had surgery
previously and when the tumor recurred, she gave up.
It was obvious that resecting the tumor would be
challenging. The veins feeding it were bigger than my thumb. I called in Dr.
Mike Enyinnah-a previous resident of mine and now a great surgeon. We had planned to slowly remove the
tumor and keep the bleeding under control. But as Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
stated “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”. The bleeding was so
fierce that it was audible. Finally, we just took a scalpel and cut off the
tumor as fast as possible. Then we compressed the wound and the bleeding
stopped!
After several weeks, the wound was granulating well and we placed a
skin graft. The patient came back 6 months later and had gained about 35 pounds. She
was so thankful.
This was an intensely satisfying surgery with a happy ending. Of course, not every surgery ends so happily.
