Pensioner had nut stuck in lung

Doctors were at first baffled by Derek Kirchen's illness

A 67-year-old man who was warned he might have lung cancer had actually had a cashew nut stuck in his lung for a year and a half.

Doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, Norfolk, were baffled by Derek Kirchen's collapses and bouts of pneumonia.

They warned him he might have lung cancer after taking x-rays.

A consultant found the nut stuck in his lung, while carrying out an investigation with a miniature camera.

Consultant respiratory physician Dr Syed Tariq threaded a camera tube into Mr Kirchen's left lung while he was anaesthetised and found a suspicious black lump.

'Complete mystery'

He pulled out the lump using the equipment and found it was a cashew nut.

Mr Kirchen, a retired construction worker, said the last time he ate a cashew was at Christmas 2004.

He was discharged from hospital at the end of last week and is recovering in a nursing home.

"I just don't know how it got there, its a complete mystery," he said on Friday.

'Causes pneumonia symptoms'

"I can't remember choking on a nut. It's ironic really as I don't even like the darned things."

Dr Tariq said: "I was pleasantly surprised when I found it as we were expecting lung cancer. We were all very relieved."

A hospital spokesman added: "This does happen from time to time. People choke on nuts and without realising part of it gets stuck in their lung. It causes similar symptoms to pneumonia.

"The problem was that because a nut is organic it doesn't show up as a being a foreign body on an x-ray.

"When the x-ray came back it is also had similar markings on it that you might expect to see with somebody who has cancer."