Doctors mistake toy cone man swallowed as a toddler for cancer

Sometimes ailments which may look harmless can turn out to be more serious and at times fatal conditions. But there are also instances when things causing concern among doctors may not be a major threat to patients.

When a 47-year-old handyman in UK felt unwell for a year as he coughed up yellow mucus, he approached doctors. On spotting a mass in his lungs visible in scans, they assumed he had cancer since he was smoking for three decades and referred him to a hospital.

But when doctors at the hospital were inspecting the man’s airway, they found out that the mass was actually a toy traffic cone which the man had swallowed when he was a toddler. Although it wasn’t a serious ailment, the man’s case is seen as a mystery as he didn’t show symptoms despite having the cone in his body for 40 years.

The doctors performed bronchoscopy to treat the man following which he revealed that he often played with such sets and swallowed toys while growing up.