Latest news with #ArianaPulido
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I died six times when doctors tried to remove my 40lbs tumor... now 'I see the world differently'
Ariana Pulido had been suffering from a 40lbs tumor so large it pushed her heart into her armpit, and she flatlined each of the time six times doctors tried to remove it - until they were finally successful and Pulido had a new lease on life. Pulido was only 22 years old when doctors first removed two tumors from her ovaries in July 2023. She thought her complications were solved, but a month later she was rushed back to the hospital when a sharp pain erupted in her shoulder. Scans detected a third fast-growing tumor on her liver. Doctors diagnosed her with teratomas, a complication where sex cells like eggs develop into tumors in different parts of the body if they get displaced during development. Physicians tried to treat Pulido's tumor with chemotherapy, but the mass only grew, ballooning to 10.6-inches in diameter and 40lbs in weight, crushing her lungs, heart and leaving her in a wheelchair and needing oxygen as she struggled to breathe. She was then diagnosed with growing teratoma syndrome, a condition where chemotherapy leads a teratoma tumor to start expanding in size. Deeming surgery the only way to reduce the tumor, physicians tried six times, but Pulido's heart flatlined every time they put her to sleep. The team said there was nothing they could do and put her on end-of-life care. It was then that Pulido was transferred to another hospital, where doctors said they would try to remove the tumor in a new operation — where a machine would perform the function of her heart and lungs. Teratomas are uncommon, with about 14 out of every 100,000 people diagnosed with the condition every year. Only about 60 cases of teratomas growing after chemotherapy for ovarian tumors - as is Pulido's case - have been reported previously. She said in an interview following her treatment: 'The third tumor was... pretty much taking over my whole left side. 'It had moved, my heart was under my armpit, it squished down my lungs.' The tumor had compressed her heart, which meant that when she was put under anesthesia — which can slow blood flow to the heart and decrease blood pressure — her heart would stop. In order to prevent Pulido's heart from stopping, doctors at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles hooked her up to an ECMO machine, a device that circulates blood for the heart and oxygenates it like the lungs would. In a marathon 14-hour surgery in May 2024, which involved more than a dozen surgeons, they gradually removed the tumor. Dr Cristina Ferrone, an oncologist at the hospital who led the treatment, said: 'The tumor was so large and heavy, and it involved such essential blood vessels, that if you injure them, it would be very, very difficult to repair them. 'And an injury like that could quickly lead to death on the operating room table.' Pulido added: 'The only one that could decide if I do go or stay on that surgery table would be God. And I just had really high hopes and faith that I was going to make it through.' A motivating force for Pulido to undergo the risky surgery was a future wedding. Her boyfriend had proposed to her in February 2024 and she was excited for the celebration and to start their dream life together. The surgery for Pulido was a major success and she was up and walking again just a month later. Dr Ferrone said: 'When she returned to the clinic a month later, the entire staff and I were amazed. 'Just six weeks earlier, she had been wheeled in, in a wheelchair. Now she walked through the doors. 'She's an incredibly strong young woman and has a wonderfully supportive family.' Pulido was married on June 21, 2025, a year after the life-changing surgery, in front of her close family and friends. She is now excited for the next stage of life. 'I feel really good. I feel like a new person,' she said. 'I see the world differently. Every day is a positive day.'
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bride Has Dream Wedding After Lifesaving Surgery to Remove 40-Lb. Tumor: 'I Feel Like a New Person'
Ariana Pulido tied the knot with her longtime boyfriend, Jeffrey Chavez, just over a year after she underwent a lifesaving surgery to remove a 40-lb. tumor Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center confirmed the news in a release obtained by PEOPLE, revealing that doctors successfully removed the mass during a 14-hour operation 'I feel really good. I feel like a new person. I see the world differently,' newlywed Pulido said of life post-surgeryA bride had the wedding of her dreams after undergoing lifesaving surgery to remove a 40-lb. tumor. Ariana Pulido was just 22 years old when she was diagnosed with a rare condition known as growing teratoma syndrome — which occurs when tumor tissue continues to grow rapidly and uncontrollably, pressing on vital organs like the heart and lungs — per a news release obtained by PEOPLE from Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. After having a tumor roughly the size of a small basketball on her right ovary removed before the diagnosis, doctors then removed a smaller one on her left ovary three months later, the hospital said. Medics then spotted a third tumor — the largest one yet at about 14 centimeters — located near Pulido's liver. But efforts to shrink it failed, the hospital said, explaining that "the mass kept growing at an alarming rate." "The tumor had progressed so much in size that it was pressing up against her right lung, shifting her heart to the far-left side, essentially under Pulido's armpit," the hospital confirmed, adding that by May 2024, the it had reached 27 centimeters and weighed more than 40 lbs., resulting in Pulido being wheelchair-bound and dependent on oxygen. Chemotherapy failed, and Pulido's original care team eventually halted the procedure altogether after "multiple surgery delays and six failed attempts to put Pulido under anesthesia" in a bid to surgically remove the tumor. Pulido then sought help from Cristina Ferrone, MD — chair of the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai — who assembled an experienced team, who managed to remove the tumor after a 14-hour, complicated operation. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Within a week after the complex surgery, Pulido's "lungs were able to fully expand, and her heart was back in its rightful place," the hospital confirmed, revealing that she "was able to breathe on her own for the first time in six months." During the halftime show on Super Bowl Sunday in 2024, Pulido's longtime boyfriend, Jeffrey Chavez, popped the question in a surprise proposal. 'He was always there every day with me, whether it was before work, after work, he was there and visiting me all the time at my mom's house,' Pulido said of her other half. The pair tied the knot on June 21, a little over a year after Pulido's surgery, saying their "I dos" in front of her close family and friends. 'I feel really good. I feel like a new person. I see the world differently,' the newlywed said of life post-surgery, per the release. 'Every day is a positive day,' Pulido insisted. Read the original article on People
