Kolkata doctor removes nose pin screw lodged in woman's lung: 'Extremely rare case'

Varsha, 35, soon started suffering from a persistent cough, shortness of breath and pneumonia.

Doctors in West Bengal successfully removed a screw that fell from a woman’s nose pin and got lodged in her lungs. Varsha, 35, had accidentally inhaled the screw of her nose pin that she was wearing since her wedding, “16-17 years back”.

“I didn't know that the screw had come loose,” Varsha told the BBC on the phone from Kolkata. “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.

What happened later:  

Initially, she thought that the screw would have gone into her stomach and would naturally pass through her digestive system. However, she started suffering from shortness of breath and discomfort.

She went to a doctor complaining of a persistent cough, shortness of breath and pneumonia. She also blamed the symptoms on a pervious injury to her nose as she was oblivious of the fact that the screw might be causing the problems.

Medicines didn’t help and she visited a pulmonologist. A CT scan detected the object lodged in her lung and a chest X-ray showed what it was. The pulmonologist ordered a fibreoptic bronchoscope, a procedure involving the specialist reaching down the airway with tiny forceps guided by a camera. But, it failed to grasp the tiny object.

What did the doctor say:

She was then referred to Dr Debraj Jash, a pulmonologist at Medica Superspecialty Hospital. “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,” Jash said.

“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 also told her that if she refuses for another fibreoptic bronchoscope, they would have to opt for invasive surgery that might have longterm complications.

“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,” Jash added.

“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.”

Fortunately, the procedure was successful and Varsha was discharged four days later. Jash also described Varsha’s case as “extremely rare”.