Man Inhales Plastic Cutlery at Fast Food Joint

North Carolina resident John Manley can finally breathe easy. According to an Associated Press story, doctors finally removed a piece of plastic cutlery that was lodged in his lung for two whole years!

For years, fifty-year-old Manley complained of coughing, fatigue and frequent bouts of pneumonia. After visiting multiple doctors, Manley discovered he had a foreign object lodged in his lung, though doctors weren't quite sure what that object was. Originally, doctors told Manley he'd have to get the lung removed. But luckily,Dr. Momen Wahidi of Duke University Medical Center thought differently.

Wahidi, the director of Duke's interventional pulmonology unit, told Manley he could remove the the object by using a rigid bronchoscope and a camera. Wahidi is used to removing objects from patients (the doctor says he's taken out nails, a peanut and even false teeth from adults' lungs), but you can imagine his surprise when he viewed the word "AMBURGER" written across Manley's lung intruder.

After removing the one-inch piece of plastic, Wahidi determined it had come from a Wendy's fast food restaurant. Manley says he likes to slurp big gulps of soda, and figures the chunk of plastic must have come from inside a cup.

While the ordeal certainly gives Manley an unusual tale to tell, he's grateful to have gotten the little bugger out of his lung. "I can breathe now," he told the AP. "I can get up and walk my dog. I couldn't do that before. I was pretty much house-ridden."

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.