- विज्ञापन -
Hyderabad: Doctors at a hospital in Hyderabad successfully removed a pen cap from the lungs of a man who had accidentally swallowed it 21 years ago.
The 26-year-old man from Karimnagar sought medical help after experiencing a persistent cough and unexplained weight loss. His condition had worsened over the past 10 days, making it difficult for him to sleep.
Dr. Shubhakar Nadella, Consultant Clinical and Interventional Pulmonologist at KIMS Hospital, explained that a CT scan revealed a lump-like structure in the patient’s lungs. Initially, the doctors suspected it was an obstruction causing the cough. However, during the procedure, they discovered that the object was a pen cap lodged inside the lung.
When the doctors asked the patient’s elder brother if he had ever swallowed something as a child, the man recalled swallowing a pen cap when he was five. At the time, he had seen a doctor, who had not found anything abnormal and assumed the foreign object had passed through the body naturally.
The procedure to remove the pen cap took about three hours. Using flexible bronchoscopy, the doctors carefully cleared the buildup of tissue, lymph nodes, and muscle formations around the object before successfully extracting it. The prolonged presence of the foreign object had caused lung damage, but the patient recovered after antibiotic treatment.
Dr. Nadella stressed the importance of timely medical intervention in such cases. He warned that leaving foreign objects in the body for long periods can be very dangerous. If the patient had delayed treatment further, the lung tissue could have been severely damaged, requiring surgical removal.
He also advised parents to be cautious when children play and ensure they don’t put small objects in their mouths, stressing the importance of seeking immediate medical attention if a child accidentally swallows something.
