Community Corner

Woman: Hospitals Won't Remove Beach Ball-Sized Tumor Over Lack of Insurance

Doris Lewis has had trouble finding a hospital that will remove a tumor that has grown to the size of a beach ball, because she doesn't have insurance. One Atlanta hospital has now scheduled her surgery.

A Newton County woman says four hospitals turned her away before one Atlanta hospital agreed to remove a painful, non-cancerous tumor that has grown to the size of a beach ball in the past two month.
 
Doris Lewis, 59, told WSB TV she had been trying to get insurance since her husband died a few years ago. There was no sense of urgency until a huge tumor started growing inside her and she realized not having insurance presented a huge problem.
 
“It's getting bigger every day,” Lewis told the TV station. “I can feel it on my body. My heart hurts a little bit.”
 
Over the last two months the benign growth wrapped around her ovaries has reached the size of a beach ball.
 
“I thought I was just gaining weight at first,” Lewis said.

Doctors are amazed when they see her.
 
“Some of the guys looked at me and said, 'You got a tumor in there. That is so big. ‘Bout to pop,'” Lewis said.
 
Lewis said no one would do the surgery because of some miscommunication and because she didn't have insurance.
 
“I've been trying to get insurance for the longest but had no success,” Lewis said. 
 
Lewis said the pain forced her to call 911 and she ended up at Emory University Hospital Midtown, where a doctor told her not to worry about the cost, she will undergo surgery to have the tumor removed.
 
Doctors have set the surgery date for June 10.


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