Kolkata Woman Inhales Nose Pin Screw; Removed From Lung 2 Months Later

A 35-year-old woman from Kolkata, West Bengal underwent surgery to get a nose pin screw removed from her lungs after she accidentally inhaled it about two months ago. At first, Varsha Sahu was not too concerned, thinking the screw would be excreted through her digestive system. However, following weeks of discomfort and shortness of breath, she finally got the foreign object surgically removed. Doctors who treated her called this an "extremely rare" medical case. 

Speaking to the international news outlet BBC, Sahu expressed, "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."

Nosepin Inhaled, Removed Two Months Later

Varsha Sahu, a mother of two teenage boys, told the outlet that she had been wearing the nose pin from the time of her marriage 16 to 17 years ago. While she initially thought the screw would come out of her digestive tract, she began suffering from shortness of breath and pneumonia-like symptoms. 

She went to the doctor complaining of a persistent cough and initially blamed the breathing difficulties on an earlier injury to her nose. When medicines did not show any effect, she consulted a pulmonologist who suggested a CT scan. The scan detected the object in her lung after which she underwent an X-ray to detect what it was.

The pulmonologist used a fibreoptic bronchoscope - a tiny camera with forceps - to grab onto the foreign object but it did not work. Sahu was then referred to surgeon Dr Debraj Jash. While she was initially reluctant to undergo another invasive procedure, the medical team explained to her that there was no other way around it. 

Dr Jash told BBC, "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. We had to be very careful because if 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."

The doctor described the case as extremely rare among women of Sahu's age. He said that this kind of case typically happens with elderly women or children but rarely with women in their thirties. Reportedly, only two such cases have happened in the past decade. Sahu is reportedly recovering well.