Watch as man, 57, has giant lump on his forehead ‘squeezed out’ in life-changing op
WATCH as a man has a giant lump in his forehead “squeezed out” in a life-changing operation.
Clyde, 57, had an enormous bump growing out of the middle of his forehead for 30 years, after he was hit by a cricket ball at close range.
The lump appeared a couple years after Clyde was thwacked in the forehead and showed no signs of budging.
The 57-year-old even tried to have the lump removed in Turkey – only to be told it was impossible.
“It’s quite an unusual thing. I know it’s not going to go away,” Clyde said.
“Sometimes I’ve laid in bed and just thought ‘why have I got this?’”
Over the years, Clyde became more and more self conscious of the lump protruding from the top of his forehead.
“Plus my dog, she wakes me up in the morning and is licking the lump on my head.
“I say Cheers Bonnie, you’re reminding me the lump’s there,” he quipped.
Clyde finally decided to visit consultant dermatologist Dr Emma Craythorne, in hope that he could finally have the 30-year-old bump removed.
The life-changing op that saw the lump being squeezed out of an incision in Clyde’s forehead was documented in the brand-new seventh series of The Bad Skin Clinic.
The second episode will air on Really at 9pm tonight.
Clyde was joined by his wife Caroline for his appointment with Dr Craythorne.
He explained that he was hit in the head at short range by a cricket ball, but that the lump actually didn’t appear until two years later.
Clyde already made a visit to Turkey to try and have the lump removed, but doctors weren’t able to help him.
“I’m in this hospital and they tried to remove it, but unfortunately they couldn’t do it. I came home with a scar and a lump,” he told Dr Craythorne.
“I’ve never known Clyde without it,” Caroline chimed in.
“He had it when we met, but I have noticed over the last few years Clyde’s got more conscious about it.”
After inspecting the bump, Dr Craythorne was immediately able to identify it as a lipoma.
She explained to Clyde:”‘Lipo’ means fat and ‘oma’ is a benign tumour.
“The only way to get rid of this is to have it surgically removed.”
The dermatologist explained that she’d have to work around in the incisions previously made by doctors in Turkey.
“What’s interesting about Clyde’s lipoma is that he’s previously had an attempted excision on this.
“That sometimes can mean that these lipomas are a little bit more complicated.”
“Usually I would have done the incision [horizontally], but because you’ve already got a [vertical] incision, I think it makes sense just to carry that on up and over.
“I’ll then pop it out, then it will be a nice flat area,” she added.
‘SPEECHLESS’
After the consultation, it was time for Clyde to head into theatre with Dr Craythorne for the surgery.
The dermatologist started by making initial incisions in to Clyde’s scalp, slicing through the fascial layer of skin tissue to get the lipoma – a pulpy orange mass.
“So what we’ve now got to try and do is get this lipoma out of this little hole that we’ve made,” Dr Craythorne explained.
“You just have to ease it out,” she added, before gently applying pressure to both sides.
“Let’s see if we can squeeze it out.”
After pressing on either side of the lump, Dr Craythorne managed to pull it out of the wound.
Though she removed the bulk of the lipoma from Clyde’s forehead, the derm wasn’t completely convinced that it was all out.
It’s going to totally change the way I feel about myself
Clyde
She told her assistant: “There’s something here, can you see this move?
“I think it’s just scar tissue where they went in before at the front.
“But because it’s moving a bit I’m just trying to wiggle my way around here to see if there’s anything at all that they maybe disrupted.”
“There is definitely something there… I think it’s a little bit of lipoma!”
With further searching and prodding with her surgical tools, Dr Craythorne pulled out another, smaller piece of lipoma that was trapped behind scar tissue that had been created by Clyde’s previous surgery in Turkey.
“Yabba dabba doo!” Clyde exclaimed as Dr Craythorne announced that all the lipoma was now out.
What is a lipoma?
Lipomas are soft, fatty lumps that grow under your skin.
They actually tend to be quite common.
They’re harmless and don’t usually need any treatment, but it’s important to get any lumps checked by a GP.
They:
- Feel soft and squishy
- Can be anything from the size of a pea to a few centimetres across
- May move slightly under your skin if you press them
- Are not usually painful
- Grow slowly
- Can appear anywhere on your body
You can get a lipoma removed on the NHS if it’s growing or causing symptoms because of where it is.
A lump is something to worry about if it’s:
- Painful, red or hot to touch
- Hard and does not move
- Increasing in size
In rare cases, lumps under your skin can be a sign of something more serious.
Source: NHS
She stitched Clyde’s forehead wound back up and showed him his brand-new, lump-less forehead in the mirror.
“Oh my god! I’m speechless. It’s round!” a delighted Clyde said, examining the new shape of his head.
“Caroline isn’t going to recognise me. It’s going to totally change the way I feel about myself,” a visibly emotional Clyde went on.
He was grinning from ear to ear as his wife walked in, saying: “Ta daa!”
Caroline exclaimed: “Oh my god, you look so different! Your face, you look so happy.”
“I do, I feel a million dollars,” Clyde responded.
“So what shall we do tonight then, take a few selfies?” he joked, as the couple left the clinic.
“Look in the mirror?” Caroline laughed.
In a previous episode of The Bad Skin Clinic, a nurse had a giant skin growth protruding from her neck removed.
Episode two of the seventh series of The Bad Skin Clinic airs on Really on Tuesday October 15 at 9pm and will be available to stream on discovery+.