A birthday-cake candle holder almost cost a pregnant woman her baby after she accidentally breathed it in and it got lodged in her windpipe, where it stayed undiscovered for the next nine years.

Mum-of-one Nuray Lutfiye Kalayci, 22, accidentally breathed in the candle holder while eating a piece of cake at a relative’s birthday party nine years ago.

She thought she had passed the object over time, but she went to hospital in Manisa, Turkey, while pregnant, complaining of shortness of breath a year and a half ago.

During examinations, doctors detected a lung problem and recommended that she terminate her pregnancy so she could start treatment.

But Kalayci was determined to have her child and so she postponed the treatment.

After she gave birth, she was admitted urgently to the Dr Suat Seren Pulmonary Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Training and Research Hospital, in Izmir.

Thoracic surgeon Dr Banu Yoldas surgically then removed the two-centimetre-long candle holder that had been lodged in the woman’s trachea for around nine years.

The surgeon revealed the extent of the woman’s afflictions, saying: “My patient’s lung had adhered to the chest wall due to the infections she had.

“I had to remove these adhesions before the surgery.

“A serious infection had occurred in the clogged airway, causing the middle and lower parts of her right lung to no longer function.”

She added: “I removed the plastic object used in cake candles from my patient’s trachea in a four-hour operation.

“My patient began to breathe easily. We are planning to discharge her soon.”

Kalayci – who lives in Salihli district, in Manisa province – said that although she was more worried about her baby than herself during the ordeal, she was happy to regain her own health.

Dr Yoldas recommended that anyone who experiences shortness of breath consult a doctor.