Tena Hughes was set to go on a safari in Uganda when she tested positive for COVID on the day she was leaving.
An Arizona woman says she learned she had stage-four melanoma thanks to testing positive for COVID-19.
Tena Hughes was set to go on a safari to see gorillas in Uganda when she tested positive for COVID on the day she was leaving.
"My heart sank, and like everything was done, you have to get all of the shots to go to Africa. It was such a big deal for me," Hughes tells Inside Edition.
She says testing positive for COVID was "a godsend." "It ruined a trip, but it literally saved my life," Hughes says.
It turned out Hughes had tumors in her brain and she had no idea. The mother of four says she had been experiencing headaches for a while, but after testing positive for COVID, the headaches became so severe she went to the emergency room. It was there that she received a shocking diagnosis.
Stage-four melanoma is a cancer that often starts on the skin but can spread.
The MRI showed tumors in her brain and others throughout her body. Hughes' doctor told her if she had flown to go on her trip, she would have died.
"He said to me, 'You know what, COVID saved your life. Had you gotten to altitude with this size of a tumor in your brain you would have died when you got to altitude because of the pressure,'" Hughes says.
Since her diagnosis three years ago, Hughes has had nine surgeries to remove recurring tumors.
She says words from one of her sons kept her going.
"He looked at me with those pretty brown eyes, and he says, 'Mom, just promise me you will keep waking up,'" Hughes says.
The 54-year-old says all of her tumors have vanished after starting a new FDA center treatment with the HonorHealth Institute.
"Her tumors started shrinking a couple of days after she got the cell therapy," Dr. Justin Moser, associate clinical investigator of HonorHealth Research Institute, says.
Hughes will forever be thankful for that positive COVID test.
"To get a diagnosis like COVID went from devastating to life-saving," Hughes says.
Doctors believe Hughes likely had the late-stage melanoma tumors for a year and a half without knowing it.
