A resident of Dariyapur village in Jharkhand, Lakhmani had not opted for operation earlier as she had been told by local medical practitioners in her village that she would die if the tumour was removed. “For years she let the tumour grow. Her relatives finally convinced her get a second opinion from AIIMS,” said Dr K K Handa, Associate Professor at the ENT Department of AIIMS. He added that Lakhmani had come to AIIMS for consultation in the last week of January.

In 25 years, the tumour had grown to twice the size of her face. “Though this type of tumour is common and usually benign, it can turn malignant. Practitioners and patients in rural areas are frequently ignorant about tumours, and many times, despite being curable they turn fatal for patients,” added Dr Handa.

The tumour was removed after a three-hour surgery performed by Dr Handa and anaesthetist Dr Rani Sunder. The AIIMS team added that the operation was another milestone of sorts, with medical literature having no earlier mention of a parotid tumour of these dimensions being successfully removed.

Lakhmani had been admitted two weeks ago but could not be operated due to certain medical complications. “We could not operate her as her electrolytes were not under control. It was a challenge to extract the tumour from facial nerves.,” added Dr Handa.