An Illinois man says a drill bit was removed from his lung after he accidentally sucked it through his airways during a dental procedure.
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Tom Jozsi,60, explained the incident that took place when he had a routine dental visit where his dentist performed a cavity filling. However, the drill bit broke off during the procedure and Joszi reportedly “inhaled” it, causing the object to fall into his airways. The object ended up stuck in his lung for about four days and Joszi said he didn’t feel anything but experienced frequent coughs.
Pulmonary expert Dr. Abdul Alraiyes said the drill bit ended up near the base of Jozsi’s right lung where a normal scope couldn’t reach it for removal. Jozsi expressed his concerns after doctors couldn’t reach the object with the scope: “What happens if he can’t get it out? And really, the answer was part of my lung was going to have to get removed”
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“When I saw the CAT scan and where that object is sitting, it was really far down on the right lower lobe of the lung,” Alraiyes said to KFVS. So he decided to test out a robotic ion catheter, a medical instrument used to detect the early stages of cancer, to reach the object. The procedure was performed by Alraiyes and his team at the Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Alraiyes and his team were successfully able to reach the drill tip since the robotic instrument easily navigated, due to its thin structure, through Joszi’s airways and removed it without harming him during the procedure.
“I was never so happy in my life when I opened my eyes and I saw him with a smile under that mask, shaking a little plastic container that had the tool in it,”
Alraiyes also explained that this is not the first time he’s heard of a case like this as many of his colleagues in Ohio and Michigan informed him that they’ve had patients who swallowed drill bits.
The Journal of American Dentistry has documented several cases throughout the years and one specific case in 2014 revealed a 47-year-old woman underwent surgery after her dentist accidentally dropped a tiny screwdriver down her throat. She was told that the object was going to pass through her system but it became lodged in her colon and needed to have the object surgically removed two months later after it seriously affected her health.
There were no further updates about Jozsi’s treatment after the procedure.
SOURCE: New York Post