I am sure you’ve heard of unusual and unexplained medical conditions people face. The case of Keely Favell from Britain is a medical mystery that caught our attention and left us wondering how is it possible for doctors to fail to establish an accurate diagnosis.
Whereas there are women who didn’t know they were pregnant until delivery day, Favell’s case is just the opposite. She believed she was pregnant all along, but the reality was far different.
What doctors convinced Favell to be a baby, turned out a giant 57-pound ovarian cyst that required urgent removal. The biggest issue is that doctors didn’t do any further analysis and simply told this woman she was expecting, despite the blood tests coming back negative.
Everything started back in 2014 when Favell started gaining weight. She believed she was just getting fat because she ate more so she didn’t really put too much thought into it. However, when people on the streets started congratulating her on her baby asking about the due date, she understood her weight got out of control.
In 2016, she blacked out so she decided to seek medical care. She told Mirror that after all the tests, doctors told her it was because of stress. When it happened again they told her it could be because of her acne medication. However, she wasn’t taking any at the time and insisted on another blood test to check once again whether there was pregnancy in question, but it came negative as the ones before.
As she started panicking already, the general physician asked for an ultrasound which left everyone in shock. They couldn’t believe what they’ve missed to discover for so long. Just to be sure, Favell was sent for an emergency CT scan that only confirmed there was a huge cyst inside her body.
She underwent a 5-hour surgery during witch the high-risk obstetrics specialist managed to successfully remove the baby-resembling cyst Favell later referred to as Mr. Whippy.
After that massive growth was out of her body, she started her recovery and felt relieved both mentally and physically. She told the BBC:
“I lost sight of how difficult even simple things like driving a car or walking up the stairs had become. Losing my lump gave me my life back – I can’t thank my surgeon enough.”
Doctors later explained that it can happen for ovarian cysts to go undetected for longer periods of time because many women don’t have any symptoms and don’t seek for help, unaware something is growing inside their body.
Some of the common symptoms could be swelling in the stomach, abnormal menstrual cycle, cramps, or facial hair. Though sometimes they are not life threatening, in many cases they have to be surgically removed.
In Kelly’s case, things could take a wrong turn if she didn’t insist on further examinations. Luckily, she is feeling great and this won’t affect her having children in the future.
What do you think of Keely’s story?