Severe shortness of breath during a little run around his South Carolina neighborhood shortly after the end of Triple-A Durham’s season was the first sign of trouble.
By the next morning, when David Hess started coughing up blood in the shower, he knew something was very much wrong.
Results of a series of tests at a local hospital staggered the 28-year-old: A tumor in his chest that had grown to the size of a cantaloupe and was severely limiting the flow of blood and air.