1:48

Sanju

2:00

had struggled beneath the weight of his ever-growing

2:02

stomach. At first,

2:04

when he was in his early twenties, his family

2:07

had thought he was just filling out a little, like

2:09

all young men do when they become adults. But

2:11

Sanju's stomach didn't stop growing. It

2:14

kept getting bigger and bigger until

2:16

it had swelled to the size of a massive

2:18

watermelon. But his arms and legs

2:20

stayed stick thin. He never understood

2:23

why his belly kept growing since he didn't

2:25

eat much. By

2:27

the time Sanju reached his early thirties, he

2:30

was in constant pain and his family

2:32

desperately wanted him to see a doctor. But

2:35

he couldn't afford to take time off of work. Although

2:38

deep down, he had to admit he was a little

2:40

scared of what the doctor might find.

2:44

The sun beat down on Sanju's head and

2:46

he could feel his chest tighten. He tried

2:48

to keep working, but today it was harder

2:50

to breathe than usual. No matter how

2:52

deeply he inhaled, he couldn't quite

2:55

catch his breath.

2:58

Finally, he dropped

3:00

his shovel and doubled over, gasping for

3:03

air. Sanju gathered what little

3:05

strength he had left and stood up straight.

3:09

He could feel other farm workers' eyes on him

3:12

as he gathered his tools and headed home.

3:15

It was the longest walk of Sanju's life.

3:18

He felt humiliated and useless. But

3:20

he was also afraid. He could barely take

3:22

a breath. By the time he

3:24

got to the small home he shared with his

3:26

family, he nearly fell through

3:29

the front door.

3:30

The last thing he remembered was falling hard

3:32

on the tile floor.

3:38

Early the next morning, Dr. Ajay Mehta

3:41

had just started his shift in the oncology

3:43

ward at Tata Memorial Hospital. He

3:46

was alerted that a new patient, named Sanju

3:48

Bharat, had been brought in all the

3:50

way from Nagpur and that he needed to

3:52

be seen right away. Dr.

3:55

Mehta hurried over to Sanju's room if

3:58

someone was rushed in an ambulance from Sanju.

3:59

so far away, it had to be a

4:02

serious emergency.

4:04

As soon as Dr. Mehta examined

4:06

Sanju's giant swollen belly, he

4:08

instructed the nurse to prepare the operating room

4:11

for surgery. Dr. Mehta was a

4:13

specialist in tumor removal and he

4:15

was certain that Sanju had a massive

4:17

tumor in his stomach, possibly

4:19

the biggest one he'd ever seen. The

4:21

tumor was likely pressing against Sanju's

4:24

diaphragm, which was why he couldn't

4:26

breathe. And given how big it was and

4:28

Sanju's weakened condition, the tumor

4:30

had to be removed immediately.

4:34

While another nurse prepped Sanju for

4:36

the operation, Dr. Mehta gathered

4:39

his surgical team and headed to the operating

4:41

room. As they

4:43

sterilized their hands and put on clean scrubs,

4:46

Dr. Mehta warned them that the tumor's sheer

4:49

size would make this a very

4:51

challenging operation. There

4:53

was a risk of damaging the soft tissue in

4:55

Sanju's stomach, his nerve endings, or

4:57

blood vessels. In the worst case, the

4:59

surgery could cause severe internal bleeding

5:02

or even death.

5:07

A few minutes later, Sanju was wheeled

5:09

into the operating room on a gurney. Once

5:12

he was under anesthesia, Dr. Mehta

5:14

called for a scalpel.

5:16

He placed one hand on Sanju's stomach

5:19

for leverage. Then he cut into

5:21

Sanju's belly. After

5:24

the blade broke through Sanju's skin and opened

5:26

up his chest area, Dr. Mehta

5:28

expected to see blood and a bright red

5:31

mass of cancerous cells. Instead,

5:34

gallons of thick yellowish

5:37

fluid gushed from Sanju's

5:39

stomach spilling onto the floor. The

5:41

entire surgical team gasped. Dr.

5:44

Mehta jumped out of the way trying to avoid

5:46

the surge of bile. Dr.

5:48

Mehta had a foul odor that made everyone in the room

5:50

start to gag. Nurses ran toward

5:53

him with towels, trying to sop up

5:55

the putrid smelling liquid. While

5:57

they cleaned up the mass, Dr. Mehta remained

5:59

calm. and carefully inserted his

6:01

hand into Sanju's stomach to

6:04

locate the tumor. At

6:07

first, all he felt was thick jelly-like

6:09

fluid sliding between his fingers. Then

6:13

he grazed something unusual.

6:16

His eyes went wide as he dove a little deeper.

6:18

His palm wrapped around something soft

6:21

but with a brittle core. He

6:24

realized this was not a tumor. Whatever

6:28

was in Sanju's stomach had bones,

6:31

a lot of them. Dr.

6:35

Madis Jha dropped as his hand

6:37

explored the object floating in Sanju's

6:39

stomach. He grabbed onto one of the tiny

6:42

bones and began to slowly pull

6:44

it up and out of Sanju's stomach.

6:47

As he lifted the bizarre object

6:50

into the air, he could hear more gasps

6:52

from everyone in the room.

6:58

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7:01

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