Years-old fast-food cutlery chunk removed from man's lung
A North Carolina man who suffered from terrible lung ailments is recovering nicely now that doctors have removed a 1" piece of plastic cutlery from his lung; the man believes it is part of a utensil from Wendy's that got into his drink: "I like to take big gulps of drink."
Doctors at Duke University Medical Center say the plastic fragment of an eating utensil -- with the Wendy's logo still legible on the side -- was likely to blame for the coughing, fatigue and pneumonia spells that plagued John Manley for almost two years.NC doctor removes plastic fragment lodged in lung (Thanks, Anonimouse)They pulled the fast-food foreign object from Manley's left lung during a Sept. 10 surgery. The 50-year-old Wilmington resident said he probably inhaled it while gulping a drink from Wendy's.
"I like to take big gulps of drink," the former home remodeler said. "I don't know of any other ways of it getting in there."
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Very pleasantly surprised that he isn't suing Wendy's and acknowledges that his own behavior likely led to the problem!
This bugs me. Even if you were taking big gulps of a drink, shouldn't it end up in your digestive system and not your lungs?
Methinks this guy needs to slow down on the intake.
Reminds me of that time I had a polish sausage lodged in the lining of my heart.
How?! How is it possible to inhale a foreign object (especially THAT one) and not notice? Maybe I just have very sensitive respiratory passages, but I feel the irritation even from inhaling something like exceptionally cold air for quite a while. How could he not have noticed?
A cautionary tale, for all of us who sprinkle broken up plastic cutlery in our drinks and then literally inhale them.
I have a marijuana seed in my left lung that I inhaled in 1977. Should I worry?
I'm surprised he isn't suing Wendy's for putting broken cutlery in the drink. Or perhaps he is!
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
A 1" piece of plastic in his lung by drinking in big gulps? Where did the big gulp of liquid that carried this 1" hunk of plastic into his lung go? I thought people, you know, drowned when they got lots of liquid in their lungs - he's luck he survived!
(Oh, wait - now I get it, he didn't notice the hunk of plastic in his lung because he's so Manley, get it?! 8^)
For some reason I had to picture Keith from the original BBC version of The Office when I read the "I like to take big gulps of drink" line. Priceless.
I wash myself with a rag on a stick.
Antinous uses a sponge on a stick dipped in vinegar.
Hey, you have to expect this sort of comment if you choose a classical name. :)
One inch long and 1/8" wide (fork prong) can very easily be aspirated. There aren't many touch receptors down there - gag reflex works on the back of your throat/soft pallet - if you're chugging a soda - that stuff could pass right by. Talk about your big gulp.
He probably had some fluid go "down the wrong pipe", coughed to get the fluid out and the object stayed and slowly moved down into the lungs over time. He wouldn't have felt it.
At least it wasn't a finger down there ("Doc, some thing is tickling in my chest").
Me too, like big gulps of drink!
I just shove food in my mouth and hope it goes the right way and that there isn't plastic in it.
Sounds like drug-lore.. "Hey, I heard that if you grind up Wendy's forks into tiny pieces and snort them you get a really great high!"
Just sounds to much like BS to me. Big gulps my right eye... I use to be good at having the drink go down and air come up at the same time, so there's no need to swallow....even with that I'd KNOW if something like a 1" piece of plastic was going down my throat.
Perhaps he used to be a knife swallower in his younger days?
Where are the "death panels" when you need them? We are wasting health care on this man!
My infant son ate some paper scraps, and then was making weird whistling noises when he was breathing... I took him to the doctor, and they treated me like I was over-reacting.
I probably was a litle, but all I could think of was a similar story where a guy got a pine sprig in his lung (warning, gross pic):
http://www.geekologie.com/2009/04/gross_man_grows_small_fir_tree.php
"I like to take big gulps of drink" is now a meme
Hey, you have to expect this sort of comment if you choose a classical name.
Excuse me? I moisten my skin with olive oil and scrape it with a potsherd.
Antinous apoxyomenos!
(In point of fact, though, the scraper, or strigil, was bronze: potsherds would cut and tear that the skin, methinks.)
@Tgg161 Oh my gosh, I totally remember the story of the guy with the pine sprig in his lung. He had suffered from really bad breath for a long time because of it. Ironic, considering you'd think his breath would have had a pine fresh scent.
High-end strigils were of ivory, I believe.
Well, Antinous is high-end.
And, to complete the circle, plastic cutlery works quite well as a strigil.
Antinous ourobouros!
Or Autofellatio..
You decide!
A casual search of PubMed (it's free!) shows that people have inhalled all sorts of odd things: dental bridges and crowns, teeth, toothpicks, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, Brazil nuts, vitamins, insects, snails, prawns, gravel, nail clippers, needles, straight pins, dental instruments, air-gun bullets...
Makes one gag to read about it.
This toddler inhaled a small branch of a Christmas tree, but of course it didn't grow in his lung.
Not all are kids or senile old people (a surprising number of cases of inhaling pins involve young women who wear headscarves in the Islamic world).
re #12 above "One inch long and 1/8" wide (fork prong) can very easily be aspirated."
I believe that. But this piece of plastic was the handle of a fork or spoon or knife, not a fork tine.
wow, i read that this morning in the paper..
i eat at that wendys alot...
i could see a chuck of plastic being in the food from THAT particualar building.
I was thinking it might be one of those Wendy's Frosties....
Then again who the hell knows.
is it REALLY possible to get something "down the wrong tube"? my dad, who is a doctor, told me it's nigh impossible.
i should point out that i am a hypochondriac and was freaking out because i thought i had a tylenol go down the wrong pipe.
indeed i did not.
He didn't say "Wendy's", he said "Wendy". His girlfriend. The one that stays inside the pillow cover.
is it REALLY possible to get something "down the wrong tube"?
Yes. We had a lady with a radish in her mainstem bronchus. She was exceptional, but people get food down there pretty regularly.