--- title: Doctors Remove Toy Traffic Cone Man Inhaled 40 Years Ago description: Doctors removed a tiny toy traffic cone from a patient's lung after it was believed to be a tumor canonical: https://time.com/4960902/toy-traffic-cone-mans-lung/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-28T15:23:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:38:37.938Z article:section: Health og:title: Doctors Remove Toy Traffic Cone Man Inhaled 40 Years Ago og:description: The patient has been doing better since the object was removed og:url: https://time.com/4960902/toy-traffic-cone-mans-lung/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993db1638c6d1bfe/6988dfce0a4a22e86c9d01c9/cone.jpg?branch=production&width=386&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 386 og:image:height: 217 og:image:alt: 170928_Plastic Cone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Doctors Remove Toy Traffic Cone Man Inhaled 40 Years Ago twitter:description: The patient has been doing better since the object was removed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993db1638c6d1bfe/6988dfce0a4a22e86c9d01c9/cone.jpg?branch=production&width=386&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Doctors Found a Toy Traffic Cone in a Man's Lung. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=a6b43495-475f-4c5c-8b6c-610c7dfd4267&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Sep 28, 2017 3:23 PM UTC  BMJ by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Sep 28, 2017 3:23 PM UTC Doctors removed a tiny toy [traffic cone](http://time.com/3816306/traffic-cone-anchor-fox29-good-day-philly/) from an adult patient’s lung after it was believed to be a tumor. The 47-year-old man inhaled the small toy as a child about 40 years ago when he received it as part of a present for his seventh birthday, [the BBC reported.](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-41403940) The tiny traffic cone hadn’t affected the man until he developed a persistent cough more than a year prior to its removal, [according to the British Medical Journal](http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2017/bcr-2017-220514.abstract), which published the case report. It was initially thought that the patient, who is a long-time smoker, had a [cancerous tumor](http://time.com/3589572/triclosan-liver-tumors-mice/) when a scan showed something on his lung, the BBC reported. Four months since the object was removed, the man’s symptoms are almost entirely gone, according to the BBC. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4960902/toy-traffic-cone-mans-lung/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4960902/toy-traffic-cone-mans-lung/"},"headline":"Doctors Found a Toy Traffic Cone in a Man's Lung. 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