Surgeons have successfully removed Hai's tumor and are now suturing his incisions, his family said.

Surgeons have successfully removed his tumor and are now suturing his incisions, his family said.

Hai's family memebers and friends, who had left Da Lat central highlands province, Hai's hometown, for Ho Chi Minh City to pray for him, burst into tears of happiness after being told that Hai has survived the operation.

The 32-year-old, who has a 90kg tumor on his right leg, was operated on at 9:00am on January 5, 2012 at FV Hospital located in District 7 in which American doctor Mc Kinnon is the main surgeon.

Hai was sent to the recovery room at 9:15pm the same day when the historic operation was officially finished.

"Dr. McKinnon told my mother that the surgery has ended successfully and my brother is likely to regain his consciousness tomorrow (Friday) morning when she can talk to him," Nguyen Duy Sang, Hai's biological younger brother, told Tuoitrenews over phone.

Hai's tumor is believed to be the largest recorded in Vietnam and probably in the world, too.

The operation had been earlier expected to last from 10 - 12 hours.

The surgery team includes five of FV hospital's anesthesiologists, McKay McKinnon (the main surgeon), and three surgeons of FV including Dr. Phan Van Thai, Dr. Le Duc Tuan, and Dr. Nguyen Quoc Thai. In the mean time, Dr. Gerad Desvignes, medical director of FV, is directly supervising the operation.

Dr. McKinnon has agreed to waive his fee on Hai while the remaining costs, around VND252 million (around $12,000), will be covered by donations raised at home and abroad.

As the fourth son of a 5-children family, Hai was born a normal child until his limbs got weakened and unable to stand on their own.

At 4, his right legs showed abnormal signs of growing much faster than the other one.

This made him quit school at 6th grade when Hai couldn’t walk as normally as his peers.

The tumor weighed up to 25 kilograms when he was 17, prompting his family to ask the Lam Dong General Hospital to amputate the right limb.

At the time, doctors still couldn’t diagnose the cause but the tumor suffered from cracked skin and necrosis.

However, since 2001, the amputated leg developed a tumor again, which kept growing bigger to a 1-meter diameter and 80-kilogram weight now.

The swelling has since spread to his lower body and back, causing him to struggle everyday with his own body and the excruciating pain.

His tumor before the operation weighed 90 kilos.