A patient had a dentist's metal drill bit embedded in his lung for four days after accidentally inhaling.
Tom Jozsi was forced to undergo a rare medical procedure at the hospital to remove the inch-long drill bit from deep inside his lung tissue.
The 60-year-old maintenance worker, from Illinois, was having a tooth filled when he swallowed the part.
The date of the accident and the identity of his dentist have not been disclosed.
When asked how this happened by local news channel Fox12, Jozsi chuckled and replied: "Well, I don't know! I was at the dentist getting a tooth filled and the next thing I knew, I was told that I swallowed this tool. So I didn't really even feel it going down. All I felt was a cough."
He said after speaking with his hospital doctor, he feared that he would have to undergo major surgery. "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."
Pulmonary expert Dr. Abdul Alraiyes, who operated on Jozsi at the Aurora Medical Center-Kenosha in neighboring state Wisconsin, said the CAT scan showed how deep the drill bit was; it was very far down in the right lower lobe of the lung.
It meant that normal scopes wouldn't be able to reach the bit, forcing Alraiyes to get creative. He tried a different device, one that was not designed for removing foreign objects, but is instead normally used to help detect early-stage cancers. He believed the size of the catheter tube was thin enough to maneuver the drill piece into position and extract it.
The extraction was recorded on video. Footage shows how the medical team carefully navigated the narrow airways to reach the drill bit and then remove it without damaging Jozsi's lungs.
"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," said Joszi — who now keeps the drill bit as a memento on a shelf at his home.
Jozsi's accident at the dentist's happened in March, but details were only made public this week. He inhaled the drill bit on Friday, March 18, and his procedure to remove it was a few days later, on Tuesday, March 22.
Alraiyes led the two-hour procedure using a robot bronchoscope, helped by a team from various disciplines, including the endoscopy, radiology and anesthesia departments.
Spokeswoman for Aurora Medical Center – Kenosha, Annette Guye-Kordus, told Newsweek: "Tom was very grateful for the expertise of Dr. Alraiyes and the sophisticated medical technology that saved him from having major surgery and from potential infection."
While Alraiyes added: "I am so happy to see Tom doing so well. When I took the first call from the Emergency doctor about this case, I knew I could help. Viewing the CT scan, I could see that the object was lodged deep in the lung, out of reach from a standard bronchoscope, but within range of our robotic-assisted bronchoscope procedure.
"Our catheter is about one-third the size, and while it's typically used to detect early stage lung cancer in distant areas of the lung, I knew we could adapt it to retrieve this object. I was happy to tell Tom that we could retrieve it and spare him from a more invasive surgery or possibly even losing part of his lung. This is why I do what I do."
Alraiyes says he has subsequently heard from colleagues in Michigan and Ohio who told him they had also dealt with cases where patients had accidentally swallowed drill bits.
Several cases have made the news over the years.
Back in 2014, the Journal of the American Dental Association revealed the case of a 47-year-old woman who was forced to undergo surgery after her dentist accidentally dropped a tiny screwdriver down her throat as she was having dental implants fitted. She was incorrectly advised by her dentist it would pass through her, but instead had to undergo surgery to remove it from her colon two months later, after it posed a serious threat to her health.
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