A woman in West Bengal accidentally inhaled a nose pin screw which led to her getting a non-invasive surgery. As per reports, she wasn’t too concerned after inhaling a part of the jewellery that she had been wearing for the past 17 years. However, things started getting worse when she faced health issues, including shortness of breath. Turns out, the screw got lodged into the 35-year-old Varsha’s lung.
"I didn't know that the screw had come loose," Varsha, a resident of West Bengal’s Kolkata, told the BBC. "I was just chatting and I took a deep breath and I inhaled it. I had no idea it went into my airway. I thought it had gone into my stomach," she added.
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Initially, Varsha thought the metal item would naturally pass through her digestive system, reported the outlet. So, when she went to the doctor with complaints of “persistent cough and shortness of breath and pneumonia”, she never imagined that the screw was causing it.
According to the outlet, she was first prescribed medicines. However, when that didn’t work, she underwent a CT scan and subsequent chest X-ray to discover that it was the nose pin screw causing the problem.
{{/usCountry}}According to the outlet, she was first prescribed medicines. However, when that didn’t work, she underwent a CT scan and subsequent chest X-ray to discover that it was the nose pin screw causing the problem.
{{/usCountry}}A pulmonologist then used a fibreoptic bronchoscope to try and dislodge the object from her lung, but it failed. She was then referred to Dr Debraj Jash, a pulmonologist at Medica Superspecialty Hospital.
Dr Jash told the BCC that Vasha’s case is "extremely rare". "Sometimes we get cases where dry fruits or betel nuts have gone into people's lungs, but most such cases involve young children or elderly people above 80. A woman patient in her 30s is an exception,” he added.
How did the doctor remove the nose pin screw?
"We had to counsel the patient first. She was worried about undergoing a second procedure so soon after the first one, but we explained to her that the human body is designed in such a way that there's no place in it for a foreign object," Dr Jash told the outlet.
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"We told her there was no way her body was going to accept it and that if left untreated, her pneumonia would keep getting worse," he added.
"It is extremely difficult to pull out a sharp object with a regular flexible bronchoscope. The object had been in her lung for more than two weeks and tissues had already grown around it,” he explained to the outlet.
"We had to be very careful because if during extraction, the screw came in contact with the airway - which is very narrow - it could cause injury and lead to a bleeding which could cause a catastrophe,’ he further added.
Thankfully, the 30-minute-long procedure was successful, and Varsha was discharged after four days.