A bride enjoyed her ideal wedding after undergoing lifesaving surgery to remove a 40-pound tumor.

Ariana Pulido was 22 years old when she was diagnosed with growing teratoma syndrome, a rare condition in which tumor tissue continues to grow rapidly and uncontrollably, pressing on vital organs such as the heart and lungs, according to a news release obtained by PEOPLE from Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Before the diagnosis, physicians removed a tumor around the size of a small basketball from her right ovary, followed by a smaller one on her left ovary three months later, according to the hospital.

Medics then discovered a third tumor, the biggest yet at around 14 cm, near Pulido’s liver. However, efforts to decrease it failed, with the hospital adding that “the mass kept growing at an alarming rate.”

“The tumor had progressed so much in size that it was pressing up against her right lung, shifting her heart to the far-left side, essentially under Pulido’s armpit,” the hospital confirmed, adding that by May 2024, it had reached 27 centimeters and weighed more than 40 pounds, leaving Pulido wheelchair-bound and oxygen-dependent.

Chemotherapy failed, and Pulido’s initial care team finally stopped the treatment entirely after “multiple surgery delays and six failed attempts to put Pulido under anesthesia” in an attempt to surgically remove the tumor.

Pulido then sought assistance from Cristina Ferrone, MD, head of the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai, who gathered a skilled team that successfully removed the tumor following a 14-hour, difficult procedure.

Within a week of the intricate operation, Pulido’s “lungs were able to fully expand, and her heart was back in its rightful place,” the hospital revealed, disclosing that she “was able to breathe on her own for the first time in six months.”

Pulido’s longtime boyfriend, Jeffrey Chavez, surprised her with a proposal during the Super Bowl halftime performance on Sunday, 2024.

“He was always there every day with me; whether it was before work or after work, he was there and visiting me all the time at my mom’s house,” Pulido recalled of her husband.

The couple married on June 21, a little over a year after Pulido’s operation, saying their “I dos” in front of her closest relatives and friends. “I feel great. I feel like a new person. According to the statement, the newlywed has a fresh perspective on life since surgery.

“Every day is a positive day,” Pulido emphasized.