A Cincinnati man has rediscovered the nose ring he lost five years ago, lodged in his lung.
Joey Lykins, 35, was rushed to the emergency room late last month with a severe cough and a feeling that “something was blocking [his] respiratory tract’.
Doctors feared these were warning signs of pneumonia, but X-rays showed that the outfielder actually had a 0.6-inch, which he had worn on his septum, embedded within the left upper lobe of his lung.
Lykins believes he inhaled the piece of metal in his sleep, saying he woke up one morning five years ago to find it missing and after “turning my room upside down” decided it was missing and bought another.
There are several anecdotal reports of people swallowing or inhaling nose piercings online, often after they have loosened. Experts say this is usually ‘safe’, but jewelry that is larger, sharp or has a rough texture could get stuck or tear the fabric.
Joey Lykins, 35, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, was shocked when doctors showed him the earlier scan that revealed the nose ring in his lungs. He was taken to the emergency room after developing a severe cough that doctors thought was pneumonia.
Lykins (pictured above with another septal piercing and in hospital) believes he inhaled the septal retainer while he slept. He said that one morning five years ago he woke up to find it missing and, after turning his room ‘upside down’, bought another
The septum retainer, which the gardener had previously worn for three or four years, is now kept as a souvenir. Shown up after being removed.
Lykins said his wife Jennifer, 41, was “shocked” by the discovery. He is a big fan of piercings and has around 12 on his body.
Lykins suggested that she may have swallowed the jewel, which she had been wearing for three or four years before, while she slept.
Blows to the nose can loosen jewelry and cause it to fall out of one nostril. This could then be inhaled through the nasal cavity or fall into the mouth where it could be swallowed or inhaled.
Doctors weren’t sure why the jewelery had caused the cough now instead of five years ago, although this could be because the scar tissue around it had grown too large or moved slightly within the lung.
When Lykins was first brought in for the scans, he exclaimed, ‘Are you kidding me? I’ve been looking for that!
Three days after the scan at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, he returned to have the piercing, which was surrounded by scar tissue, removed.
Doctors put him under anesthesia and performed a bronchoscopy, a procedure normally used to help diagnose infections, remove blockages or remove objects from the lungs.
In the procedure, a tube is slowly passed down the patient’s throat to the affected lung.
It can then be hooked onto the object and then gently pulled back to remove it.
Lykins said he kept the metal bar, which cost about $8, as a souvenir.
“I’m glad it didn’t puncture my lung,” he said.
It’s never caused me any trouble, I’ve coughed but I never thought too much about it.
‘I didn’t know what was going on, but I never thought that was what it was. I’ve never heard of that happening before.
Lykins, who has 12 piercings, said when he told his wife Jennifer, 41, about the scan, she was “shocked” and insisted on seeing the X-ray images.
He suffered no complications from the surgery.
Lykins is not the first person to experience this strange phenomenon.
A medical report from the American College of Chest Physicians in 2020 records a case where a 26-year-old woman’s nose ring became stuck in the tube leading to her right lung.
The woman said she was loosening the ring when she suddenly sneezed and sucked it up into her windpipe.
The above shows the septum retainer inside the lungs and what it looked like after it was removed.
Lykins pictured with his wife Jennifer, 41, at their home in Cincinnati, Ohio
X-rays revealed that it had lodged in his right bronchus, the tube that leads to his lung. It was removed by bronchoscopy.
Dr. Niket Sonpal, a physician at Touro College in New York, previously told New York-based beauty publication Byrdie local post that nose jewelry is normally safe to swallow unless it has a pointed end or rough texture.
“Most likely, these types of jewels also pass through the digestive system without problems,” he said, “but the risk of damage to the internal organ tissue through which they must travel is more present.”
He warned that swallowing a barbell was riskier because it was long and had a sharp edge at one end, which could damage tissue.
