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Petra Bohunicka, a 38-year-old woman from Prague, was enjoying a leisurely bike ride while on holiday with her friends when she began to have trouble breathing. She hadn’t thought it was anything serious. Her friends even laughed at her for not being able to keep up.
When the trouble persisted though, Bohunicka became concerned and went to the hospital. It was then that doctors discovered the cause of her breathing issues.
Bohunicka had a massive tumor the size of a football growing inside her lungs.
Thankfully, the tumor was benign, but it had been growing in Bohunicka’s lungs for several years now. Though non-malignant, the tumor would continue to cause Bohunicka problems because its size would eventually have kept her from breathing properly.
Professor Robert Lischke, at Prague’s Motol University Hospital, knew that the tumor had to be removed for Bohunicka’s long-term health – but he had his concerns before proceeding with the operation.
“It is,” he said, “of course an easy option to say that [the tumor] is too big and to leave it. But that is a mistake.”
Professor Lischke went with what he felt was right – he decided to carry out the long, arduous operation.
The entire procedure took several hours. Not only did the surgeons have to remove the tumor from Bohunicka’s lungs, but in the process, they had to also remove the membrane surrounding her lungs, the pulmonary pleurae, as well as the muscle at the base of her chest cavity, the diaphragm.
Professor Lischke and the operating team almost lost Bohunicka several times during the surgery, but managed to save her each time she slipped.
