We have completed maintenance on DiscoverMagazine.com and action may be required on your account. Learn More

Too Strange to be True? Tree Found Growing in Man's Lung

Discoblog
By Rachel Cernansky
Apr 13, 2009 10:11 PMApr 10, 2023 8:12 PM
Tree lung
Depiction of a tree lung. (credit: Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock)

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news
 

Remember being told when you were a kid that if you swallowed any of the seeds inside an apple, the fruit would start growing in your stomach? And then learning later that it was all a joke? Well...turns out that might not be so far from impossible. The Russian publication Mosnews.com is reporting that a 28-year-old patient was found to have a five-centimeter fir tree in his lung.

Doctors were performing a biopsy on the patient, Artyom Sidorkin, after he'd complained of intense chest pain and was coughing up blood. They suspected cancer, but instead of finding a tumor when they cut the lung tissue, they reportedly found green needles. They continued, in alleged disbelief, to remove an entire branch from inside Sidorkin's body.

The medical team believes that the blood Sidorkin had been coughing up was a result of the needles poking the capillaries, and that the branch grew inside his body after he swallowed a small bud—since clearly, the branch was not swallowed whole.

Hoax? Or truth? We'll keep you updated as the story, er, blooms.

Image: www.kp.ru

1 free article left
Want More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

1 free articleSubscribe
Discover Magazine Logo
Want more?

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Subscribe

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

More From Discover
Recommendations From Our Store
Shop Now
Stay Curious
Join
Our List

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

 
Subscribe
To The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Copyright © 2024 Kalmbach Media Co.