She thought the pin would naturally pass through her digestive system.
A team of doctors in Kolkata successfully removed the screw of a gold nose pin from a woman's right lung after she accidentally inhaled it. At first, 35-year-old Varsha Sahu wasn't too concerned after inhaling a part of the nose pin that she had been wearing since her wedding 16 or 17 years ago, BBC reported. She thought the pin had gone into her stomach and would naturally pass through her digestive system.
However, things took a turn for the worse when she started facing health issues, including shortness of breath. A month after inhaling the screw, she went to a doctor complaining of a persistent cough, and pneumonia. She was first prescribed medicines which didn't work.
She then consulted a pulmonologist, who conducted a CT scan and a chest X-ray. These tests revealed a small object lodged in her lung, later identified as the screw from her nose pin.
"I didn't know that the screw had come loose. 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," Ms Sahu told the BBC.
A pulmonologist then used a fibreoptic bronchoscope to try and dislodge the object from her lung, but he failed. The woman was then referred to Dr Debraj Jash, a pulmonologist at Medica Superspecialty Hospital. Dr Jash mentioned that if a second bronchoscope attempt failed, they might have to resort to invasive surgery.
"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" Dr Jash said. "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.
"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 bleeding which could cause a catastrophe,' he further added.
However, the second bronchoscopy performed by him was successful and the screw was removed. He also called it an ''extremely rare case''.
The patient recovered and was discharged from the hospital four days after the operation.