SWALLOWED A SCREW

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1926, Page 13

SWALLOWED A SCREW

STRANGE CASE IN SYDNEY.

(From Our Own Corr«*pond»nt.) SYDNEY,. 14th October. Goats and other ruminants are not alone in swallowing a diversity of strange things. Human beings.at times do the same with extraordinary: results. Some years ago a woman in .Sydney swallowed a chop bone. A bad cough developing a long time afterwards, she, I was ordered to hospital, and was being carried to the X-ray department when, she was suddenly attacked by a bad fit of coughing. She coughed up the bone, of which she had been blissfully ignorant. An even more remarkable case was that revealed a day or two ago at another of the big Sydney hospitals. A screw which had been imbedded in awoman's lung for 25 years was removed by operation. The woman when a child, swallowed a screw about half an. inch in length. It was only years afterwards, when she developed a cough, and occasionally ( brought up blood, that she was reminded of the incident. An examination a few days ago revealed the presence of the screw in the right lung. The metal had been badly corroded; and the thread of the scrow had totally disappeared. These incidents suggest the thought that if one were suddenly to develop a bad attack-,of coughing, it might not be a bad idea to try to recall some of the strange things that might conceivably have been swallowed.