In a rare and complex surgery, an 11-kg tumour was removed from the abdomen of a teenage Kenyan girl at the Asian institute of Gastroenterology.

Interestingly, using the new cell-saver technology, most of the blood that was lost during the surgery, was sucked back in. The blood cells were cleansed, warmed, processed and transfused back into the girl while the AIG staff and donors donated their blood products to compensate for 13 litres of blood lost.

The 17-year-old orphan girl, Ms Vincencia Awuor, from Embakasi Garrison Secondary School, in Nairobi, Kenya, had a huge liver tumor. This had bloated her abdomen and she had been stigmatized since 2008 as her classmates thought she was pregnant. The increasing size of her abdomen even restricted her movement.

Ms Awuor was treated at various medical centres in Kenya and there was an attempt to remove the tumour surgically. However, due to massive bleeding, the surgery was abandoned.

Ms Awuor's uncle, Mr Martin Awuor, came to AIG about three weeks ago after hearing about the institute from other Kenyans. On June 16, the girl underwent the complex surgery to get rid of the tumour.

"It was a non-cancerous benign hamartoma tumour. Two large incisions had to be made for the surgery," said Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, the chairman and chief of gastroenterology at AIG.

"I was confident of a successful surgery," said Ms Awuor, who aspires to become a doctor and serve at AIG someday.