'I thought I was dying of lung cancer but the truth was even stranger'

A man who thought hisfate was sealed by a tumour had his life turned upside down in seconds when doctors retrieved a bizarre object from his lungs.

Postman Paul Baxter, from Preston in Lancashre, said of the debacle: "[When they pulled it out] everyone just started laughing, the doctors, nurses, all of us. I find it absolutely hilarious.”

The 57-year-old was referred to a respiratory clinic after complaining ofcoughing up yellow mucus and feeling unwell for over a year.Medics initially thought Paul, who had also recently suffered pneumonia and had been a long-term smoker, had a tumour after an X-ray showed a mass in a lung.

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However, it turned out the culprit was not a malicious tumour,but a “long-lost Playmobil traffic cone” that had been lingering in Paul’s lungs for about 40 years. Paul had received the cone on his seventh birthday.

The postman said he went to the doctors with a "bog-standard winter cold" and thought he was getting routine checks. During a bronchoscopy medics identified "something small and orange" at the bottom of his lung, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The report stated: “He recalled being given this Playmobil set for his seventh birthday and believes he aspirated the toy traffic cone soon after.”

While it is a common occurrence for children to accidentally inhale small objects, “a case in which the onset of symptoms occurs so long after initial aspiration is unheard of”.

Paul said: "No, it is not on the mantelpiece. It is in a jar they gave me, in the cupboard. I think I will keep it forever, pass it on to my grandchildren."

His doctors said: “This may be because aspiration occurred at such a young age that the patient’s airway was able to remodel and adapt to the presence of this foreign body,” the report said.

They added that during childhood, the object may have been absorbed into the lining of the lung, which developed around it - causing Paul a lot of issues.

Four months after the removal of the tiny traffic cone, Paul's cough had nearly cleared and his other symptoms had markedly improved.

The medics said: “On a positive note, his symptoms improved markedly and he finally found his long-lost Playmobil traffic cone in the very last place he would look.”

Paul said of the doctor putting a camera down his throat: "He said he could see something orange at the bottom of my lung... I couldn't think what small and orange thing could be in there.

“I did what every kid does. I used to eat my toys. I must have had it in my mouth and it went down my windpipe. But I don't remember feeling anything.

"It was just sat there for 40 years. I had pneumonia when I was 18 and nothing was picked up then. I was in hospital in 2004 with a brain abscess and had an MRI scan but again nothing was picked up."