Electrician Inhales Plastic Cable Cap After Cough

Story By: John FengSub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report   

Medics have removed this plastic cable end cap from an electrician’s lung after he inhaled the object while crimping cables at the top of an electrical pole.

Mr Fu, 45, sucked the electrical end cap into his windpipe while coughing, the native of Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province in north-eastern China, told medics on 5th December but waited three days before going to the hospital.

Picture Credit: AsiaWire

Doctor Liu Xi, with the Fifth People’s Hospital of Shenyang, told local media: “He appeared to be perfectly fine, so I asked him what was wrong.

“He pulled a piece of yellow plastic out of his pocket and said it was an electrical cable cap with a metallic centre.

“He’s an electrician. He said a few days ago he held one of these cable end caps in his mouth at work and accidentally inhaled it when coughing.

“CT scans showed one of the same caps at the bottom of his right lung.

“I pulled back up into his mouth using a bronchoscope, then he spat it out.”

Picture Credit: AsiaWire

Mr Fu, who was up an electrical pole at the time of the accident, recalled: “I held one in my hand and the other with my teeth.

“With my free hand I was crimping electrical cables with a pair of pliers, then I coughed and sucked the cable cap into me.

“I jumped off my ladder, but it was so messy at the worksite that I couldn’t tell whether I had actually inhaled it or not.”

Picture Credit: AsiaWire

He took himself to the hospital five days later after experiencing slight discomfort in his chest.

Doctor Liu said the procedure took all but five minutes, and that Mr Fu’s lungs were not harmed by the plastic object.

The medic added: “The patient is very lucky the foreign body didn’t become lodged in his trachea, which could have led to breathing difficulties and loss of consciousness.

“If he had waited too long, the cap may also have ended up deeper in his right lung.

“That would’ve required a thoracotomy to retrieve.”

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