Man thought to have cancer actually has toy cone that he swallowed as a child in 1977 stuck in his lung
A MAN who was feared to have cancer actually had a toy traffic cone stuck in his lung 40 years after he inhaled it.
The unnamed 47-year-old, from Preston, had been referred to a respiratory clinic after complaining of being unwell and coughing up yellow mucus for a year.
He had also been diagnosed with pneumonia two months earlier and had been a long-term smoker.
Medics originally thought he had a tumour after an X-ray revealed a mass in his lung.
A bronchoscopy was carried out to help doctors diagnose his condition.
But they soon realised the mass was a "long lost Playmobil traffic cone" the man had swallowed on his seventh birthday.
The 1cm cone was removed with biopsy foreceps.
The said: "Following the procedure, the patient reported that he regularly played with and even swallowed pieces of Playmobil during his childhood.
"He recalled being given this Playmobil set for his seventh birthday and believes he aspirated the toy traffic cone soon after.
"Four months after removal of the tiny traffic cone, his productive cough had almost entirely settled and a chest X-ray only showed minor residual consolidation (blockage in the lung).
"On a positive note, his symptoms improved markedly and he finally found his long lost Playmobil traffic cone in the very last place he would look."
Doctors noted that a case of a child swallowing something taking this long to show symptoms is ";unheard of".
Tracheobronchial foreign body (TFB) is more common in children than it is in adults.
"The diagnosis of TFB in children appears to be delayed for more than one week in a small but significant proportion of children," the report continues.
"However, a case in which the onset of symptoms occurs so long after initial aspiration is unheard of in the literature.
"Yet this obstruction had not caused any symptoms until the preceding year.
"This may be because aspiration occurred at such a young age that the patient’s airway was able to remodel and adapt to the presence of this foreign body."
Only one other case has remained undetected for 20 years, according to the report.
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