'That accident literally has saved my life': Car crash led to woman finding out she had cancer

PHOENIX — Yovana Portillo was driving around with a ticking time bomb.

But it took a car crash to let her know that it was there. 

In 2016, Portillo and her sister were driving in southwest Phoenix when they were sideswiped by a semi truck carrying milk. The accident wasn't life-threatening, but Portillo went to the hospital to get checked out. 

"I never wish a car accident on anyone," Portillo said, "That accident literally has saved my life."

Doctors at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center gave her a CT scan and noticed a mass on her lung. 

"All you need is lungs," Portillo said. "I just happened to be the one that ended up with this disease."

Portillo said she never smoked. She took the precautions against lung cancer that she learned in school. But she's one of the patients every year that gets lung cancer without smoking. 

“What we are finding is that there are more incidental nodules, spots on the lungs that are identified during an evaluation in the emergency room for some other reason," said Dr. Jasmine Huang, Portillo's doctor.

Doctor's removed the tumor and a lobe of Yovana's lung. Then doctors had to decide what to do next. 

She wanted a family, which meant treatment like chemotherapy might be risky. Luckily, doctors didn't think she needed it. The cancer was caught early enough that removing it was sufficient. 

"If I need to get a CT scan once a year, twice a year for the rest of my life," Portillo said, "then that's a small price to pay for able to live a life."

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How big is Maricopa County?

Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.

The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).

One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.

The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.

The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.