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A month ago, Doris Lewis of Atlanta entered the hospital after experiencing shortness of breath. Today she is stable condition after a 27-pound tumor was removed from her abdomen in an 8.5 hour surgery performed at Emory Hospital.

At first, Lewis did not know she had a growing tumor — she thought she was just gaining weight. Shortly after the discovery of the mass, she lost her husband, then lost her insurance. Doctors say that by the time she went to the hospital, removal of the mass was imperative. Doctors agreed to operate on Lewis even though she was uninsured.

“This thing was going to continue to grow,” says Dr. Alan Gordon of Emory Hospital.”The good news for her was that even though it had grown a significant size, it had been doing this slowly.”

Lewis’ friends and family were concerned for her.

“It was very frightening, seeing her sick, seeing her throwing up, seeing this thing in her stomach that we had no idea about being there,” says daughter Sarina Lewis.

Doris Lewis is expected to be back on her feet by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, across the country an Arizona woman named Marcey DiCaro was finally able to get a 47-pound tumor removed from her abdomen with the help of the Affordable Care Act.

The University of Arizona was able to perform the lifesaving surgery on DiCaro due to her recently acquired Obamacare insurance. The University of Arizona Hospital released this statement:

“DiCaro, who had no health insurance at the time of diagnosis, had a scan that revealed a large tumor in March 2012…Finally, in 2014, DiCaro was able to acquire insurance coverage that would cover preexisting conditions through the Affordable Care Act. She underwent surgery April 17. By then, surgery had become more complicated with the growth of the tumor and the involvement of other organs.”

One of DiCaro’s kidneys had to be removed because it was totally encased by the massive tumor. She underwent 10 hours of surgery and suffered cardiac arrest during the procedure.

“If the tumor had been let go, it would have killed me,” DiCaro said.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: thank goodness for the Affordable Care Act.

SOURCE: USATodayUnitedPressInternational | VIDEO SOURCE: YouTube