She had been ill for some time. The abdominal swelling was becoming unbearable. The woman, under 50, thought she was suffering from digestive problems. Nothing could be more dramatically wrong. The diagnosis was merciless: a seven-and-a-half-kilo malignant ovarian tumor, a large abdominal mass "with compressive effects that would affect both her quality of life and her life expectancy," the medical bulletin stated.
The patient, from a village in the Baronia region, was unaware of this. She discovered everything when she decided to undergo a thorough examination. She contacted the Nostra Signora della Mercede hospital in Lanusei and was entrusted to the care of the gynecology department, directed with great sacrifice—given staff shortages—by Marco Dei, and the surgeons headed by the head physician Gian Pietro Gusai. The specialists began the diagnostic and therapeutic process, which, after clinical and instrumental tests, indicated the only option: the operating room .
The surgery—performed by a multidisciplinary team— resulted in the removal of the impressive neoplastic mass using a no-touch procedure , along with the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and omentum. Interaortocaval and interlibra femoral lymphadenectomy were also performed.
