Illinois Man Inhaled A Piece Of Dentist’s Drill While Getting a Filling

An Illinois man got a piece of a dentist’s drill stuck in his lung after he unintentionally inhaled it.

Tom Jozsi was getting a tooth filled by his dentist in Kenosha, Wisconsin when he all of a sudden inhaled a one-inch-long drill bit. “Next thing I know I was told I swallowed this tool, so I didn’t really even feel it going down. All I felt was a cough,” Jozsi said, ABC 7 Chicago reports.

Because Jozsi, 60, took inhaled just before coughing, doctors believe that sent the drill piece deep into Jozsi’s airwaves. Dr. Abdul Alraiyes, pulmonary director at Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, said the object was so deep that normal scopes weren’t able to get to it.

“When I saw the CAT scan, and where that object is sitting, it was really far down on the right lower lobe of the lung,” said Alraiyes, per ABC 7 Chicago. If doctors weren’t able to retrieve the piece, part of Jozsi’s lung would have to be removed.

The doctors opted to try out a new device that was made to remove foreign objects and is often used for the early detection of cancer. With no harm to Jozsi, doctors successfully removed the device. The drill piece was in his lung for 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, ABC 7 Chicago reports. The device has now been removed from Jozsi’s lung to the top of his shelf, where he keeps it as a souvenir.