Doctors have made an insane finding during a man’s surgery which revealed what was really causing his cancer symptoms.
The discovery came after a man from Preston, England, visited his doctor believing he might have cancer due to issues with his lungs.
After being referred to a respiratory clinic, concerns for his health deepened as the 47 year old explained how he was coughing up yellow mucus and had been feeling unwell for over a year.
An x-ray revealed a mass in one of his lungs and a bronchoscopy was scheduled.
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However, surgeons couldn’t believe what they found during the operation.
Instead of a cancerous lump, the mass turned out to actually be a toy traffic cone that the man had inhaled as a child.
The ‘long-lost Playmobil’ toy had been a gift that the man had received on his seventh birthday, and was removed from his lung using biopsy forceps.
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Writing about the incident in BMJ Case Reports, doctors 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.”
The report continued: “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.”
It is also possible that the object ended up being absorbed into the lining of the lung, which then developed around the toy.
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After its removal, the man’s health picked up and just four months later, his cough was nearly gone.
Doctors went on to say: “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.”
The incident sparked a reaction on social media, with one user taking to Reddit to write: “So the radiologist were like ah yes, a tumor perfectly shaped like a traffic cone, that makes sense.”
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Another said: “I imagine it had a fair bit of tissue that had grown around it. Also I imagine miniature traffic cones aren't anyone's first thought when they're assessing a scan (a child's ear or nose is another matter).”
A third person commented: “One of the few times I can see a surgical team hysterically laughing, and it make perfect sense.”
And a fourth added: “I trust he kept the cone. Nice souvenir.”