Man Gets Inch-Long Drill Bit Stuck in His Lung After Accidentally Inhaling It During Dental Procedure

As if you needed another reason to be scared of the dentist’s office.

According to WISN, a 60-year-old Illinois man faced the possibility of losing a part of his lung after he completed a routine dental procedure earlier this year. Tom Jozsi said he was getting a tooth filled when he was told he accidentally swallowed an inch-long drill bit. 

“I didn’t really even feel it going down,” he recalled. “All I felt was a cough.”

But after a CT scan was performed, doctors confirmed Jozsi didn’t swallow the item after all … he actually inhaled it. He was later sent to the Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he was treated by pulmonary expert Dr. Abdul Alraiyes. The doctor told WISN he initially tried to remove the drill bit with a normal scope, but the item was “really far down on the right lower lobe of the lung.”

Jozsi was then plagued by a huge question: What would happen if they couldn’t pull the object out?

“Really the answer really was, part of my lung was going to have to get removed,” he told the network.

Thankfully for Jozsi, the Kenosha doctors had another idea. The team ended up using a catheter-sized device that is typically used for early cancer detection. Video shared by WISN showed the tool going down Jozsi’s airways and successfully pulling out the drill bit, which had been in the man’s lung for about four days.

“I was never so happy in my life when I opened my eyes and I saw him with a smile under that mask, shaking a little plastic container that had the tool in it,” Jozsi said.

The man said he was allowed to take the drill bit as a souvenir, and it currently sits on a shelf.