This man was told he had cancer but you would never guess what was really inside his lungs

They told us it couldn’t happen but somehow it did… As children, a common fear is to swallow a seed and to have a watermelon grow inside of you. Parents or grownups immediately tell you that it is impossible. Well… it now turns out they might be wrong.

In 2016, Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Gazeta, wrote a story about a man who had the most amazing yet awful thing happen to him. First doctors told him it was cancer but turns out this man had a tree growing in his lung!

Yes, he had a tree grow in his lung

Why are we writing about a story that happened in 2016 you may ask? Well because it is coming back on social media. The Instagram page Pubity, which counts over 34 million subscribers shared the story again on 4 September 2023.

Pubity is specialised in weird and catchy stories and their repost of the story has already collected over 900,000 likes and over 10,000 comments.

The story is simple, a Russian man went to the doctors in 2016 where he reported intense chest pain as well as the fact that he was coughing up blood. Speaking to Komsomolskaya Gazeta a doctor explained:

We were 100 per cent sure. (...) We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before

Because this doctor was certain of his diagnosis he decided to go ahead and operate to remove what he believed was a cancerous tumour. But once the operation was over and he was inspecting the part of the patient’s lung he had removed, he was shocked to find a small tree.

Read more:Hairy tongue: This man was diagnosed with this rare condition after his tongue turned green and hairy

How did a tree get there?

Upon the finding, the doctor was so shocked that he had to ask his assistant to come have a second look.

I thought I was hallucinating (...) I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things.

The doctors believe that the patient simply inhaled a seed which over time started to grow into a fir tree. They also think that the patient was coughing up blood because of the pine needles. Indeed, these could pierce blood capillaries.

The patient who also spoke to the Russian tabloid was probably the most shocked out of everyone. He said:

It was very painful. But to be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me

So, kids everywhere will be relieved to know that swallowing a watermelon seed won’t make a watermelon grow inside you. However, inhaling a tree seed could mean growing a tree. New fear unlocked…

Read more:Man experiencing extreme thirst realises its a symptom for brain tumour

Sources:

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Mail Online: Shocked Russian surgeons open up man who thought he had a tumour... to find a FIR TREE inside his lung