A fall from a ladder last year saved Scott Zink's life.

While undergoing scans to look for fractures, doctors discovered something more serious.

"When they did the sonogram, they said 'We're going to have to do a CT because there's something on your kidney.' So it was kind of like 'OK, let's find out what that is.'  Then they took me to the CT and after the CT they said, 'You have a tumor and you really need to go see a specialist,'" he said.

The first specialist he saw said the size and location of the tumor would make it necessary to remove his entire kidney.

"That obviously isn't what I wanted to hear," Zink said.

A second opinion from Dr. Nicholas Muruve, a urologist with the Cleveland Clinic Florida, offered better news.

Muruve told Zink he could remove the tumor while sparing the kidney.

"It makes sense that if we can keep a patient with two kidneys instead of one they have a lower risk of things like hypertension, kidney disease, things of that sort, over time. So that now has become the standard of care for tumors of a certain size," said Muruve.

Muruve said technology and surgical skill have increased the ability to remove tumors alone.

"We're finding these earlier because of scans for other issues, like gallstones, and so many of these cancers aren't advanced," he said.

Zink lost about 25 percent of his kidney to the operation but it's still fully functioning and, even better, his tumor was benign.

"So I really won the lottery," Zink said.