Hear the sound a whistle makes when lodged in a four-year-old boy’s lungs

An astonishing video reveals the sound a whistle makes when it becomes lodged in a person’s lung.

An unnamed four-year-old boy, believed to be from New Delhi, India, can be heard squeaking while he coughs after inhaling the toy.

Doctors became even more concerned when X-rays revealed his left lung was blown up like a balloon, prompting worried medics to insert a bronchoscopy tube down his throat where they discovered the lodged whistle.

Medics then removed the toy, which the boy’s parents said he had been playing with before his cough developed.

One year on, the boy has fully recovered and no longer whistles when he coughs. 

A four-year-old boy developed a squeaky cough after he inhaled a toy whistle that got lodged in his lungs. Although the whistle cannot be seen in his X-ray, the scan shows his left lung was overly inflated compared to his right, prompting doctors to investigate further 

Whistling coughs are ‘exceptionally rare’   

When the boy arrived at a ear, nose and throat clinic, he was showing no signs of infection and was generally well aside from coughing for the past two days. 

Despite feeling in good health, tests revealed a wheeze was coming from the middle and lower sections of the youngster’s left lung.

Although the whistle was not visible in his X-rays, scans did show trapped air pockets around the then-mysterious toy.

According to Dr Pirabu Sakthivel, from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, if any other object had been lodged in the boy’s lungs it would have created a wheezy noise or loud breathing rather than whistling.

Dr Sakthivel told Live Science: ‘Foreign bodies in the airways are common [but the] whistling nature of [the] cough is exceptionally rare’. 

Once removed the whistle was removed, the boy’s lungs began to inflate and deflate normally, according to a case report published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors discovered the whistle after inserting a bronchoscopy tube down the unnamed boy's throat. They then removed the toy, which the boy's parents said he had been playing with

Doctors discovered the whistle after inserting a bronchoscopy tube down the unnamed boy’s throat. They then removed the toy, which the boy’s parents said he had been playing with

Postman inhaled a tiny toy cone as a child that lodged in his lungs for 40 years

This comes after a case report released last September revealed a postman inhaled a Playmobil cone that became lodged in his lung for 40 years.

Paul Baxter, from Croston, Lancashire, was thought to be suffering from cancer after doctors discovered a mass in the ex-smoker’s lungs.

Tests appeared to confirm their fears, until the medics inserted a tiny camera to look closer at the suspected tumour.

What the doctors believed to be a malignant growth turned out to be a toy plastic traffic cone from a Playmobil set Mr Baxter received as a seventh birthday present.

Mr Baxter, 50, has since kept the toy as a souvenir of his ordeal. 

The father-of-two said: ‘The operation was under local anaesthetic and when they removed the cone in the theatre it was hilarious, everyone in the room just laughed.

‘It has come out in perfect working order, you can even still see the markings.’



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