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Man, 60, gets dental drill bit lodged in lungs for 4 DAYS after inhaling it

This is not a drill. Jozsi keeps the drill bit on a shelf to remind him of the breathtaking ordeal. An Illinois man given new meaning to the term "iron lung"...

Dr. Rockson Samuel

Dr. Rockson Samuel

Founder & Chief Dentist · Indira Dental Clinic; DentalReach

4 min read53,719 views
  • Foreign Body Aspiration
  • robotic surgery
  • professional education
  • foreign body removal
  • foreign body
  • bronchoscopy
  • dentistry
  • lung
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This is not a drill.
Jozsi keeps the drill bit on a shelf to remind him of the breathtaking ordeal.
An Illinois man given new meaning to the term "iron lung" after accidently sucking a nearly inchlong dental drill tip down his airways, where it remained for over a week. https://youtu.be/dOjmAtMBnDk "I didn't even notice it moving down. "All I felt was a cough," Tom Jozsi, 60, said of the incident, which happened while the maintenance worker was having a cavity filled. He ingested the component after it broke off the tooth-hollowing device during the treatment, according to reports.
“I didn’t really even feel it going down. All I felt was a cough,” described Tom Jozsi.
Jozsi was then taken to the Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where CT scans revealed that the tool tip had passed through the larynx and trachea and had been stuck near the base of his right lung. "It was pretty far down on the right lower lobe of the lung," said Abdul Alraiyes, the pulmonary doctor who presided over the excision.
A view to a drill . . . bit. Robotic Bronchoscopy By AB. Alr
According to KFVS, the doctor assumed that the patient inhaled immediately before swallowing, which is why the drill was able to bore so deeply. Unfortunately, because of the drill head's difficult location, medical professionals worried they'd have to remove a section of Jozsi's lung to prevent the intruder from injuring the surrounding tissue. "What if he can't get it out?" he worried. "And the true answer was that a portion of my lung would have to be removed."
The drill bit post-extraction. Robotic Bronchoscopy By AB. Alr

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References

  1. [1]World Health Organization. Global Strategy and Action Plan on Oral Health 2023–2030 World Health Organization. 2024. Available at: source
  2. [2]FDI World Dental Federation. Vision 2030: Delivering Optimal Oral Health for All FDI World Dental Federation. 2021. Available at: source

Written by

Dr. Rockson Samuel

Dr. Rockson Samuel

Founder & Chief Dentist · Indira Dental Clinic; DentalReach

Dr. Rockson Samuel is a dental surgeon, healthcare content strategist, and Founder and Chief Dentist of Indira Dental Clinic in Vellore, India. With formal training in dentistry, management and digital marketing, he works across clinical practice, dental publishing, professional education, community development and international dental media. As Community Leader at DentalReach, he develops evidence-informed resources for dentists and contributes to global dental events, digital strategy and professional communication.

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