--- 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=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Doctors Found a Toy Traffic Cone in a Man's Lung. He Inhaled It 40 Years Ago 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. He Inhaled It 40 Years Ago","datePublished":"2017-09-28T15:23:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:38:37.938Z","description":"The patient has been doing better since the object was removed","url":"https://time.com/4960902/toy-traffic-cone-mans-lung/","keywords":["Bizarre","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993db1638c6d1bfe/6988dfce0a4a22e86c9d01c9/cone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993db1638c6d1bfe/6988dfce0a4a22e86c9d01c9/cone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170928_Plastic Cone","caption":"","creditText":"BMJ","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4960902/toy-traffic-cone-mans-lung/","name":"Doctors Found a Toy Traffic Cone in a Man's Lung. He Inhaled It 40 Years Ago"}}]}] ```