OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska woman who went to an Omaha emergency room for a ruptured appendix received a bigger surprise after a CT scan -- doctors discovered a kidney stone that weighed approximately a pound.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was huge and it had horns, and it was like a monster,” Chrissi Anderson, 61, of Omaha, told “Today.” “And they’re like, that’s what’s growing inside your kidney. It was just massive.”
Thanks to innovative robotic surgery, doctors were able to remove the staghorn kidney stone, WOWT reported.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, what Anderson experienced is a condition called staghorn calculus.
The massive kidney stone had been silently growing for years. Women are more likely to form this type of stone than men. Her doctor explains why it produced few symptoms. https://t.co/zkd3H0yqFX
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 27, 2026
It is a kidney stone with branches and can occur because of repeated urinary tract infections, the clinic website notes. The branches of this particular stone can block urine from leaving a person’s kidney, leading to possible kidney failure and even death.
In January, Anderson went to an area emergency room after feeling “excruciating” pain in her back, “Today” reported.
“That was at 10 o’clock, by 10:15 p.m., I was having contractions out of my lower flank. I was like, we need to go to the emergency room,” Anderson told WOWT.
Anderson needed an appendectomy for her ruptured appendix. But a review of her CT scan that night revealed the presence of the staghorn stone.
“They had missed it originally. I had a scan in 2019 — at that time they did not catch it, so they said they know it’s been here since 2019 growing,” Anderson told the television station. “They said it could have been there for years before they ever even found it.”
Dr. Euclid de Souza, Anderson’s urologist, said that staghorn stones can develop and not be detected.
“The problem with staghorns is they’re very silent because they are big and they cannot move, whereas people complain about the small stones because they move,” de Souza told “Today.” “The smaller the stone, usually more the pain, because they can move around, block the kidney, so the urine has nowhere to go. Whereas these stones have found a home for themselves in the kidney, and they don’t move around, so urine drains around them.”
De Souza determined that Anderson was a good candidate for the da Vinci robotic surgical system.
“It has arms on a machine — they’re very narrow and they have movable parts on it,” De Souza told WOWT.
Surgeons at CHI Health CUMC Bergan Mercy in Omaha used the machine on March 17 to remove the kidney stone in a single procedure, “Today” reported. The robotic procedure is shorter and requires less recovery time, according to WOWT.
Anderson’s stone measured approximately 3 inches across for the “head of the deer” and another 3 inches for the “antlers,” de Souza told “Today.”
The procedure was a success, and Anderson said she was experiencing no discomfort.
“Amazing! No pain,” she told WOWT.
While Anderson’s kidney stone was large, it was not a record. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest kidney stone removed weighed 1.76 pounds. Doctors in Colombo, Sri Lanka, removed the large stone from Canistus Coonghe on June 1, 2023.
Record or not, Anderson said she is urging people to monitor their health closely.
“I would say if somebody was having leg pains and cramps, you know, constant fatigue, they should get their kidney checked,” she told the television station. “I never in a million years thought that’s what it was. You have to be the one to advocate for yourself, unless it’s something major and your appendix bursts. Then they’ll tell you.”
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