back to article Is this cough cancer, doc? No: it's a case of Playmobil on the lung

The British Medical Journal has revealed a mistaken diagnosis of cancer was caused by Playmobil. A quartet of medico-boffins from the Departments of Respiratory Medicine at Wythenshawe and Royal Preston Hospital explain this malaise in a British Medical Journal case note titled “An airway traffic jam: a plastic traffic cone …

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        1. hplasm
          Coat

          @Anon Y. Mous

          Still waiting-

          no change yet!

          1. Korev Silver badge
            Coat

            Re: @Anon Y. Mous

            Did the penny drop?

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now that we're in this area...

    I once swallowed the metal end of a tape measure when I was three...

    1. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: Now that we're in this area...

      Must be awkward with the rest of it stuck outside?

      1. David 132 Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Now that we're in this area...

        Must be awkward with the rest of it stuck outside?

        Reel inconvenient, but on the plus side he's the only person in the world with 4 feet between his shoes.

  2. Mystic Megabyte

    Hg

    My sister once bit the end off a mercury filled thermometer, ISTR a bit of a panic as my parents got her to spit out bits of broken glass etc. It doesn't seemed to have harmed her, she recently retired from her job.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hg

      My sister bit the school dentist, which earned her hero status at her school.

      Not so much with the dentist, especially since she didn't let go that quickly :).

    2. JamesPond
      Joke

      Re: Hg

      "t doesn't seemed to have harmed her, she recently retired from her job."

      at the age of 21 due to chronic memory loss, poor visual spacial skills, attention deficit disorder and muscle weakness.

      1. Dave 32
        Coat

        Re: Hg

        I once crushed a Mercury-based thermometer in my mouth, too. However, it happened in a doctor's office. The doctor rammed the thermometer in my mouth just as I sneezed. Glass and bits of Mercury went all over the place (my mouth, the table, the office, him, etc.).

        Metallic Mercury isn't all that toxic. Heck, drinking a bit of it used to be a folk-remedy for an upset stomach! Now, other Mercury compounds, such as Dimethyl Mercury, can be exceedingly toxic.

        Anyway, it doesn't seem to have hurt me. Or, maybe that explains why I'm a cryptographer now?

        Dave

        P.S. I'll get my coat. It's the one with the pocket full of Mercury-based thermometers. Have to have something to snack on, don't I?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hg

      I always felt nervous having one of those stuck under my tongue and being told to close my mouth. Nowadays you can buy cheap contactless gadgets that read the temperature of whatever surface you point them at.

      One day the office nurse commented that the vending machine was producing cups of coffee that seemed dangerously hot. She dunked one of her body temperature thermometers in my cup - and the thermometer immediately disintegrated.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hg

        One day the office nurse commented that the vending machine was producing cups of coffee that seemed dangerously hot. She dunked one of her body temperature thermometers in my cup - and the thermometer immediately disintegrated.

        With all those dangerously hot beverages around, no wonder you have an office nurse!

        Are the biscuits covered with glass shards, too?

      2. Simon Harris

        Re: Hg - coffee that seemed dangerously hot

        Not quite as dramatic as the thermometer, but the coffee vending machine outside the lecture theatre when I was at university dispensed coffee hot enough to melt* the stirrers intended to go with them.

        There was less attention paid to the lecturer, and more to constructing plastic stirrer sculptures.

        * ok, maybe not actually melt, but considerably soften.

  3. Seanie Ryan

    same here

    i once swallowed a tall tale.....

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: same here

      I have had this running through my heading reading the comments here :-)

  4. hatti

    Fantastic Voyage

    I think it would have been much more fun sending in a crack team of shrink rayed Playmobil figures to retrieve said cone rather like in that old film Fantastic Voyage. They could have been kitted out with jumpsuits, backpacks, ropes, saws, lasers and hard hats to complete the job. I'd pay money to watch that.

  5. Mike Rodgers

    It never ceases to amaze me

    At what the body can withstand and adapt to - and at the same time just how little it can take to kill you. SMH

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