A Pea Plant in Lung Grows in Massachusetts Man

A pea plant in lung grew from a pea that went down the wrong way. A Massachusetts man learned the hard way about God's sense of humor. While facing a diagnosis of cancer, doctors operating on the man made a very amazing discovery.

You wouldn't think that a pea plant could grow in your lung, or that your lung would give optimal conditions for such growth. You would also think that facing this problem would make it so that you never again ate peas, but the first meal after his surgery had peas for the vegetable.

Ron Sveden is the name of the man who went to the hospital with a collapsed lung. Seeing a growth on an x-ray, the worst was feared. There was no early indication that there was a plant...growing...inside this man's lung.

The event happened in Boston, and doctors at the Cape hospital that were treating him thought the worse for this 75 year old patient who already suffered from emphysema and pneumonia.

According to Boston.com, Though it is fairly common for food particles to become stuck in a person's airway, it is a strange case for anything to grow in that environment, said Dr. Scott Slater, Sveden's pulmonologist.

Lung tissue was swollen around the pea plant, making it difficult to diagnose. Still yet, the incident has given the man a new lease on life as it isn't very often that things end up happy like this.

Although uncommon, it's not the first time that a plant has sprouted in the lung of someone. In April of 2009, a fir tree was discovered inside the lung of a Russian man.

Health experts then estimated that the patient inhaled the seed sometime while training in the Russian army, where he spent a lot of time outdoors.

Had they not discovered the tree inside the Russian man, it could have pierced the lung and caused severe internal bleeding. He's very happy that he did not have cancer and that the tree could be removed.

Conditions of the lung are hot and humid - which are optimal to germinate a seed. It's strange to think that a plant could sprout inside your body - you would think that the conditions inside your lung wouldn't allow it.

The pea plant in lung story, like the Russian man's story, has a happy ending. Lucky for these individuals, they can live to tell their tales for more years to come.

Sources:

Russia Today, "Fir Tree Man Shocks Doctors"
L Finch, Boston.com: Pea sprout plucked from man's lung