Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies
Brewster, August 13 2010:
A man, who the doctors suspected to be suffering from a cancerous tumor, is found to have a pea sprouting inside his windpipe.
"My blood pressure was very low.
My oxygen count was very low.
I was dehydrated, my left lung collapsed, and I had pneumonia," 75-yr-old Ron Sveden from Brewster told the Herald.
After an X-ray showed a spot on Sveden's windpipe, Cape CodHospital doctors thought the retired teacher was suffering from a cancerous tumor.
"Prior to Memorial Day I was going down hill," Sveden said.
"My appetite went away and I was coughing a lot.
I just had this listless feeling where I just wanted to lie down.
I had no ambition to do anything" .
After samples were tested, doctors told Sveden that the spot was not cancer but a plant sprouting inside him.
It seems Sveden had been eating peas, one went down the wrong pipe, then grew to an inch-and-a-half in his lung, collapsing it.
Through surgery they removed the plant and Sveden's health improved.
"Thankfully it's all over," he said.
With a good sense of humor and new outlook of life he deals with friends and family affectionately calling him "pea brain" showering him with cans of peas and bags of seeds.