Nurse loses leg to tumor after ignoring pain to treat COVID-19 patients

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A nurse who ignored pain in her leg so she could attend to COVID-19 patients had to have it amputated after discovering that a tumor was causing the ache.

Sette Buenaventura disregarded the muscle cramp for eight weeks while she worked 12-hour shifts at a hospital in Greater Manchester, England. The 26-year-old initially thought the pain was simply due to standing for long stretches of time during her work, as per Metro on Thursday, Aug 6.

However, Buenaventura eventually underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan when she began to have a hard time walking. She underwent the scan last April and learned that she had a sarcoma in her right leg.

Sarcomas are “rare cancers that develop in the bones and soft tissues, including fat, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, deep skin tissues and fibrous tissues,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Weeks after, the tumor in her right calf had grown to the size of a golf ball. Though medical professionals believed it could have been removed through surgery, they later learned that this was not the case.

Health workers amputated Buenaventura’s leg in May, as per the report. Following the operation, the nurse recalled that she was upset upon finding out that her leg had to be removed.

“I was so upset, I like to look after myself and try my best to be healthy, I work in healthcare and never expected this to happen to me,” she was quoted as saying.

Buenaventura has since had a hard time accepting her new life. She added that she cannot look in a mirror now to see herself without her right leg.

The nurse also admitted to feeling anxious over how people would treat her now, stressing that she “hates people thinking that [she needs] help all the time.”

Buenaventura then pointed out that she and her colleagues had worked “flat out” when the coronavirus crisis began.

“That is what working in hospitals is like, you forget about your own pains because you’re busy helping other people, which I love to do, but everything comes at a cost,” she said in the report.

Despite her long shifts at the hospital, Buenaventura is set to return to work in November if her rehabilitation process goes smoothly. She also warned others who may be experiencing lingering pain to have it checked as soon as possible. Ryan Arcadio/NVG

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