Patient’s Lung Cancer Turns Out to Be Toy Traffic Cone Inhaled 40 Years Ago

Every parent needs to remember this story so they can bust it out on that fateful day when their kid tries to shove a toy up their nose.

A 47-year-old guy in Preston, England has had a cough since 2015, and earlier this year, he went to several doctors for help. Eventually they did a scan of his lungs and they noticed a dark mass. The guy was a smoker, so they assumed it was cancer.

But when they used a bronchoscope to actually look into his lungs, they found it wasn't a tumor, it was something else: A toy.

Specifically: A Playmobil toy traffic cone.

The guy said he'd gotten some Playmobil figures as a gift when he was seven, and he must've inhaled the traffic cone. It got stuck in his lung and stayed there for forty years.

It's been four months since the doctors removed it and the guy's cough is totally gone.

Read more at The Guardian.