Fir Tree Found Growing Inside Man's Lung

[kyektulu]

Russian media has reported that a man who complained to doctors of severe chest pains was told he had a fir tree growing inside his lung.


Artyom Sidorkin found a fir tree inside his lung. Pic:East2west News


Reports say Artyom Sidorkin, 28, from the Urals region of Russia, is believed to have inhaled a seed which then sprouted inside him.
Doctors were convinced he had cancer after he came to them complaining of agonising chest pains and coughing up blood.
An X-ray showed what was believed to be a tumour, and he was rushed to the operating theatre.
Surgeon Vladimir Kamashev from Izhevsk in the Urals was quoted as saying "We were 100% sure."
"We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery."
Before removing the major part of the man's lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy.
"I thought I was hallucinating," said Dr Kamashev.
"I asked my assistant to have a look: 'Come and see this - we've got a fir tree here'."
"He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things."
The 2in (5cm) spruce, which was said to be touching the man's capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.
Mr Sidorkin, now recovering after the op, said in reports: "To be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me. But I'm just so relieved it's not cancer."
Biologists are sceptical about a plant growing inside human body.
"It is absolutely impossible for a green plant to grow from this small seed inside a man's body. In order for a plant to start growing from the seed, it needs a lot of conditions - light, then water and certain temperature," said Olga Baranova, a university professor.
wing Inside Man's Lung

1:14pm UK, Wednesday April 15, 2009
Russian media has reported that a man who complained to doctors of severe chest pains was told he had a fir tree growing inside his lung.


Artyom Sidorkin found a fir tree inside his lung. Pic:East2west News


Reports say Artyom Sidorkin, 28, from the Urals region of Russia, is believed to have inhaled a seed which then sprouted inside him.
Doctors were convinced he had cancer after he came to them complaining of agonising chest pains and coughing up blood.
An X-ray showed what was believed to be a tumour, and he was rushed to the operating theatre.
Surgeon Vladimir Kamashev from Izhevsk in the Urals was quoted as saying "We were 100% sure."
"We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery."
Before removing the major part of the man's lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy.
"I thought I was hallucinating," said Dr Kamashev.
"I asked my assistant to have a look: 'Come and see this - we've got a fir tree here'."
"He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things."
The 2in (5cm) spruce, which was said to be touching the man's capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.
Mr Sidorkin, now recovering after the op, said in reports: "To be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me. But I'm just so relieved it's not cancer."
Biologists are sceptical about a plant growing inside human body.
"It is absolutely impossible for a green plant to grow from this small seed inside a man's body. In order for a plant to start growing from the seed, it needs a lot of conditions - light, then water and certain temperature," said Olga Baranova, a university professor.

[kyektulu]

Wonder if he kept the tree and planted it?

Its crazy though, if you think of the external factors needed to grow a tree, it should be impossible for a seedling to sprout inside the human body, it must be a 10billion to one... if not finate to one...

[Moonbat]

yeah, I saw this and thought how could it germinate from a seed inside a lung? where's the light from?

Obviously fir trees can grow without light, but just warmth and air. Seems odd.
So does the man have 1 lung now?

I know there's abad pun here somewhere. The poor guy will be lucky to live to thirty, or shoudl that be fir tree! Ah hahahaha!

[Ursa major]

Isn't it the arteries that are meant to fur up? (You were right, Moonbat. )

This is really strange. I won't say it was impossible, because nature is designed to survive. Apart from anything else, trees and other plants would not survive if they weren't capable of growing in the temporary absence of light: seeds get lodged in crevices and covered in deep leaf-litter (and tarmac) and still make it into the light.

[pyan]

Doesn't look like a 5cm seedling to me - the needles are too big, and isn't that a broken off end?

More likely it's the tip of a branch that he's accidently inhaled...

Here's a picture of a fir seedling, courtesy of the Forestry Department of British Columbia...

[Overread]

how do you accidentally inhale a branch?
that said apparently there was a women once who get a seed trapped in here teeth - the thing took root and grew into her brain I guess she really hated dentists (Because that would be been painfull!)

[pyan]

Perhaps he was eating it, and coughed...

Or possibly the whole thing was meant to have been released on the first of this month, not now...

[BookStop]

Originally Posted by pyan

Doesn't look like a 5cm seedling to me - the needles are too big, and isn't that a broken off end?

More likely it's the tip of a branch that he's accidently inhaled...

that is exactly what I was thinking

[Boneman]

By Pyan
Or possibly the whole thing was meant to have been released on the first of this month, not now...

Or Russia's April fool's day falls on the 15th April......... But on the other hand, at least he didn't pine away.........

[Ursa major]

...and he'll be spruced up before you know it.

[kyektulu]

Lol... I thought I would lay off the puns... but it seems everyone has beaten me to it. lol

Next time all puns will be mine! lol

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by pyan

Perhaps he was eating it, and coughed...

Or he was running through the trees when he coughed....


(That'll teach him to be more careful of cough-in-a-Rus forest. )

[the smiling weirwood]

Gross! Oh sickening...I'm going to go be violently ill now...

[Drachir]

Thank goodness Russian medicine was capable of getting to the root of the problem. On the other hand this article has a few more rational explanations.

Did fir branch prick a lung?

[dustinzgirl]

When I was little, my dad told me that if you swallow watermelon seeds then watermelons will grow in your belly.

I never believed him.

Now, I wonder how many watermelons I have expelled from my belly.

Anyways, this is just so freaking weird!!!