Tooth pulled out from man's lungs

KOLKATA: After pulling out safety pins, bottle caps, coins and what not from people's throats, surgeons on Tuesday extracted a wisdom tooth from a 55-year-old's lungs. That too three years later.
Rajendra Prasad Gupta had accidentally swallowed the tooth after it fell off while he was eating. Doctors said that the tooth had somehow got lodged into the windpipe instead of passing to the stomach.Gupta, a resident of Garulia in North 24-Parganas, did not realize this at the time. His problem started two months ago: he started having breathing trouble and started feeling uneasy in his chest.
Gupta visited a local doctor at Garulia who referred him to SSKM. He got admitted at SSKM's ENT department. After carrying out tests, doctors zoomed in on the problem. A three-member team of doctors Ranjan Paul, Pradip Das and Pijus Manna, with the help of anaesthetist Amit Kundu, conducted a one-hour operation to bring out the tooth without cutting any portion of the body.
Doctors said it was very uncommon. "What is more surprising is that Gupta did not have any problem for three years," said Dr Ranjan Paul.