60 year old man thrusts dental drill bit into lungs for FOUR DAYS after inhaling –

A caregiver was left with a dental drill in her lungs for four days after she accidentally swallowed it.

Tom Jozsi, 60, suddenly felt a cough during surgery in Illinois.

Scans revealed that the 0.8-inch metal tip had passed through his airway and was placed near the bottom of his right lung after being separated from an instrument.

Doctors considered surgery, which involved cutting off part of the lung to remove the object before it damaged the surrounding tissue.

But experts from Aurora Medical Center-Kenosha in neighboring Wisconsin instead used a catheter normally used to detect lung cancer.

The dental drill stayed with a patient for four days after being swallowed during a dental filling procedure in Illinois. On the left the drill is in the lung and on the right after removal

Tom Jozsi, 60, a care worker, said the drill stayed in his lungs for four days before being removed by doctors. He just felt ‘cough’ when he swallowed

Doctors initially thought surgery was needed to remove the burs, but later decided to use a catheter (left) normally reserved for cancer patients. In the photo on the right is the drill extracted from the lungs.

“I’ve never been happier in my life,” said Jozsi, as when the drill was removed. In the picture above, lung specialist Dr. Abdul Alraiyes is seen holding the drill.

“I didn’t even hear it fall. All I felt was a cough,” said Jozsi KFVS †

Doctors said the exercise went too deep because Jozsi was breathing.

The patient was initially told that the only way to remove it was to cut off the piece of lung it was in.

“I was asked, what if he can’t get it out?” said Jozsi.

“And indeed the answer was that that part of my lung had to be removed.”

But Dr., a lung specialist at Kenosha Medical Center. Instead, Abdul Alraiyes used a device normally reserved for cancer patients only.

Video of the procedure shows a special catheter guided through the airway to the object.

He then holds it before removing the drill without harming the patient.

“I’ve never been happier in my life,” said Jozsi, when he noticed that the drill had been removed.

“I opened my eyes and saw that under that mask, with a smile, he was shaking a small plastic container with the tools,” he said.

The catheter used, scientifically called the ion robot, can normally only be used to probe the lungs of cancer patients.

Alraiyes (along with the surgery footage) said she decided to use the device because it was small enough to pass through the airway.

In the left photo, the drill stuck in the lung at the lower right (highlighted area) and on the right the path of the catheter through the lungs to reach the drill.

Alraiyes said she decided to use the device because its small size allows her to reach the object without the need for surgery.

He explained that doctors from Ohio and Michigan have already been contacted to say they have nearly identical cases of patients swallowing dental drills.

“Jozsi’s drill bit is now on a shelf in his house,” he said.