Three years ago, Mr. Chen (pseudonym), a farmer from Longtang Town in Western Guangdong, started experiencing frequent and difficult urination. Urination would often be interrupted suddenly, and he would need to change position in order to relieve himself. Sometimes he would also experience discomfort and even pain.
Chen initially mistook the symptoms for common prostate-related issues and refused to see a doctor. He didn’t want to take time off from his work on the farm and believed he could keep the pain in check with medicine. Unfortunately, the symptoms worsened as time went by. He didn’t dare venture too far from home, for fear of having to urinate, and he woke up many times during the night, to the point where he barely got any rest.
The farmer eventually gave in to the pleas of his family and agreed to visit a hospital. At the Department of Urology at the Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University in Xuwen, he was shocked to learn that he had a bladder stone so large that urine could barely flow through his urethra.
According to Lin Yuan, deputy chief physician of the Department of Urology, Chen’s giant bladder stone measured 10 centimeters wide, 13 centimeters long, and weighed 1.3 kilograms (2.9 lbs), roughly the size of two adult fists.
X-rays of the man’s midsection showed how the giant stone took up most of the space in the bladder, and doctors confirmed that it could have endangered the man’s life, due to the prolonged pressure on the bladder walls.
To remove the giant stone, the Chinese hospital put together an multidsciplinary team and came up with a custom surgical plan for the procedure. Luckily, it was a success, and the 56-year-old farmer was finally rid of the nightmare that had been plaguing him for years.
“If only I had come for treatment three years ago, I wouldn’t have suffered so much for nothing,” Chen reportedly told doctors.
Although not the largest bladder stone ever recorded, doctors said that the 1.3-km rock was definitely the largest ever recorded in Guangdong.
