A Norwegian man who was about to undergo gastric sleeve surgery – and who had struggled for more than a decade with his weight and then been prescribed Ozempic – turned out to have a massive cancerous tumour in his stomach, which had gone undetected for years.
He is now determined to sue the doctors who missed the diagnosis.
Norwegian optician Dr Thomas Kraut (59) had spent 12 years battling a weight problem, and as his stomach grew larger, doctors assumed he was just obese and enrolled him in weight loss and nutrition courses.
He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2012, and put on weight loss treatment and Ozempic for the diabetes – while his tumour continued to grow undetected.
“I lost so much weight with the change in diet and Ozempic that my face and arms were very thin,” he said. “Only my stomach was huge. The doctor even said that I was actually malnourished.”
Daily Mail reports that his stomach kept expanding, getting bigger and bigger, and eventually in 2023, he decided to have gastric sleeve surgery, which involves removing a large portion of the stomach.
“That’s when the surgeons realised the hard surface of my stomach wasn’t fat,” he said.
A CT scan revealed that a massive tumour, measuring 50cm in diameter and weighing nearly 30kg, was lodged in his abdominal cavity.
It took doctors two weeks to diagnose a rare fatty tumour made up of smaller cancerous areas, which were surrounded by fat. The specific type of mass is unclear. It had also spread to his right kidney and parts of his small intestine.
Doctors spent 10 hours removing the tumour, along with his kidney and a portion of his small intestine, but although the tumour was removed entirely, they were unable to take out all of the cancerous tissue from his body.
A portion of malignant tissue remains in his abdomen, which doctors said is too dangerous to remove due to it pressing on several vital organs.
Kraut now sees a psychologist for therapy every two weeks and has to visit the oncologist twice yearly, as the tissue is still growing.
He is now suing the doctors who failed to detect the cancerous mass for more than a decade. His lawsuit was initially dismissed, but his lawyers have since filed an objection.
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