Doctors to operate on 'Tortoise Woman'

A Chinese woman is to have surgery to remove a 25kg tumor from her back after doctors agreed to operate for free.

Sun Fengqin, 47, from Inner Mongolia - dubbed 'Tortoise Woman' - could not afford to pay for the operation.

So doctors at Xijing Hospital agreed to waive their fee for the complicated surgery, reports the Xi'an Evening Post.

Plastic surgeon Guo Shuzhong said Sun suffered from a nerve fabric tumor which could only be removed surgically.

"The main risk is a massive hemorrhage," he said. "During the surgery, we may need to transfuse her with up to 10,000cc of blood - equal to three times the blood in her body."

Sun says the tumor started as a yellow birthmark on her back but has grown so big that she now struggles to walk upright.

"By the time I was 20 years old, the tumor had grown into the size of a rice bag, but it is now so big and heavy that I have to lean forward when I walk," she said.

Surgeons, Chinese Woman, Surgery, 25kg Tumor, Sun Fengqin, Inner Mongolia, Tortoise Woman, Tumor Operation, Tumor, Xijing Hospital, Plastic Surgeon Guo Shuzhong, Fabric Tumor, Massive Hemorrhage, Blood In Her Body, Yellow Birthmark, Heavy Tumor, China