KENOSHA, WIS. – A routine trip to the dentist is normal – after an Illinois man inhaled a dentist’s drill and had to go to the hospital to have it removed last month.
Tom Jozsi, 60, told WISN-TV he was going to the dentist for a filling when he was told he had swallowed an instrument.
“I didn’t even really feel it subside. All I felt was a cough. When they did a CT scan, they realized, ‘You don’t swallow it.’ You inhaled it,” he said. Doctors believe Jozsi inhaled it just before he coughed, sending the patch 1 inch deep into Jozsi’s lungs.
Dr. Abdul Alraiyes, at Aurora-Kenosha Medical Center in Wisconsin, said the wound was so deep that normal scopes could not be reached. Jozsi said he was told that if it couldn’t be removed, part of his lung would have to be removed.
Alraiyes and his medical team decided to try a newer device to remove foreign bodies – one designed to detect cancer early.
The captured video shows that the medical team was able to navigate the narrow airways, reach the drill bit and pull it out without harming Jozsi.
Jozsi said: “I have never been as happy as when I opened my eyes and saw him smiling under that mask and shaking a little plastic box with tools in it.
Joszki said he currently keeps the drill on a shelf at home.
Alraiyes said colleagues in Michigan and Ohio have reported seeing similar cases.
