Thursday, January 12, 2012

She Coughed Up a Tumor

If you don’t believe in miracles, you will have a tough time with this one.

A woman in England, a mother of six, had a coughing fit one day and coughed up a tumor. She thought little of it.

The next day Claire Osborn had another coughing fit and coughed up another, larger tumor. This time she was sufficiently intrigued to take the tumor to a physician for testing.

Tests showed that she had coughed up a metastatic adenocarcinoma, an especially nasty throat cancer. Her doctor gave her a 50% chance of surviving.

If discovered early enough, this kind of tumor can be removed surgically. Still, patients are required to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment to remove any cancerous cells that had metastasized throughout the body. Such is usually the case.

Physicians tested Osborn for other traces of the cancer. They did not find any tumors but discovered a few errant cells in the back of her throat. A mild surgical procedure removed the cells.

Now, Osborn is cancer-free. With surgical precision her miracle cough cured her of a cancer that would likely have killed her.


5 comments:

Tilda Tally-ho said...

Is that really true? The British press isn't noted for its veracity.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

I was skeptical too, but it's been reported in a few sources, from ABC to Gawker. The story seems to have been substantiated by physicians.

Andrea said...

I'd like to know what kind of smoking habit she had that coughing up the first tumor was something she "thought nothing of." I mean, if I coughed up something bigger than a tiny droplet of spit I'd be at the hospital faster than you could say "beam me up."

On the other hand, if she was one of those pack-a-day smokers who coughed up a lung every morning, maybe that kept the tumor from gaining a "foothold," so to speak, and helped it come out. Maybe I should start smoking!

Andrea said...

"thought little of," I should have said. I keep forgetting to open up the "show original post" thing to make sure I'm quoting correctly.

Ari said...

Somebody survived socialized medicine? A miracle indeed!!