- The man in China went to the doctor after suffering from persistent cough
- Doctor found a small foreign object stuck in his left lung under a CT scan
- The patient said he inhaled a light bulb holder by mistake 31 years ago
- He used the appliance as a cigarette filter but swallowed it while breathing
A Chinese man who accidentally inhaled a light bulb holder over 30 years ago has finally had it removed via surgery.
The 45-year-old Mr Hao was admitted to a hospital in Jiaxing, eastern China, with persistent cough, but was soon found to have an object stuck in one of his lungs.
The light bulb holder had broken into pieces when the doctor attempted to remove it using forceps. It was extracted after a two-hour operation.
A man in east China is found to have a light bulb holder stuck in his lung as a CT scan shows
The light bulb holder had broken into pieces when Dr Wang tried to remove it using forceps
Dr Wang of Tongxiang No. 1 People’s Hospital did a computed tomography (CT) scan on Mr Hao and found a white shadow below the left primary bronchus.
‘It was not a tumour. it seemed to be a foreign object stuck in the lung,’ Dr Wang told Jiaxing News.
Mr Hao then recalled an accident that happened to him in 1987. He told the doctor that the object could be a light bulb holder.
‘The cigarettes were not filtered back in the eighties. We were using tobacco leaves and it was bitter if the leaves went into the mouth, so I used a light bulb holder as a filter,’ he said.
He swallowed it accidentally while holding the small appliance on the lips.
‘I was taking deep breaths after jogging on the street, and I swallowed it by mistake,’ Mr Hao added.
Mr Hao used the holder as a cigarette filter 31 years ago but swallowed it by accident
The object had stayed in his lung and caused him to cough over the years until recently
In the past three decades, Mr Hao suffered persistent cough but was treated as pneumonia by other doctors.
Dr Wang examined Mr Hao’s lungs using bronchoscopy, a medical instrument to pass through the patient’s mouth to the throat before reaching the lungs.
The light bulb holder was ‘lodged in the tissues and firmly stuck’.
He used forceps to pick up the pieces and carefully removed it from Mr Hao’s lung.
Dr Wang also reminded that patients who have similar situations should visit a doctor immediately to avoid suffocation due to the blockage of the airway.
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