Doctors at the National Lung Hospital in Hanoi said on Friday that they had successfully removed a 6.5-centimeter branch that had been puncturing a 22-year-old man’s right lobe for 14 years.

Trang Seo Tien, 22, a resident of northern Lao Cai Province, was hospitalized with prolonged fever and cough.

Sometimes, he coughed up blood. 

Tien recounted that when he was eight years old, he fell during an outing with friends and a tree branch pierced his chest wall.

Tien underwent treatment at a few grassroots hospitals and had to revisit doctors regularly.

After enduring coughing up blood and erratic fevers for the past 14 years, Tien recently visited the National Lung Hospital in Hanoi and was diagnosed with a foreign body - a tree branch - in his right lobe.

“It’s surprising that the tree branch stayed in my lobe for all these years,” said Tien.

The foreign body existed for too long in Tien’s lung, causing extensive damage, according to Dr. Khieu Manh Cuong, who is working at the hospital’s thoracic surgery department.

“The foreign body is large in size and persists for too many years in the lung, so it has caused a lot of inflammation and pus in the lung cavity,” Dr. Cuong said.

“The patient faced the risk of complete resection of the right lobe.” 

After discussions, Dr. Cuong and other doctors decided to perform a surgery to remove the foreign body and the damaged parts in order to preserve the remaining healthy lung areas.

“This is the most complicated foreign body removal surgery we have ever completed,” the doctor commented.

The surgery turned out a success.

“This is a great effort of the entire surgical team,” Dr. Cuong added.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!