# Fir Tree Found Growing Inside Man's Lung



## kyektulu (Apr 15, 2009)

*Russian media has reported that a man who complained to doctors of severe chest pains was told he had a fir tree growing inside his lung.*








     Artyom Sidorkin found a fir tree inside his lung. Pic:East2west News


Reports say Artyom Sidorkin, 28, from the Urals region of Russia, is believed to have inhaled a seed which then sprouted inside him.
  Doctors were convinced he had cancer after he came to them complaining of agonising chest pains and coughing up blood.
  An X-ray showed what was believed to be a tumour, and he was rushed to the operating theatre.
  Surgeon Vladimir Kamashev from Izhevsk in the Urals was quoted as saying "We were 100% sure."
  "We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery."
  Before removing the major part of the man's lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy.
  "I thought I was hallucinating," said Dr Kamashev.
  "I asked my assistant to have a look: 'Come and see this - we've got a fir tree here'."
  "He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things."
  The 2in (5cm) spruce, which was said to be touching the man's capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.
  Mr Sidorkin, now recovering after the op, said in reports: "To be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me. But I'm just so relieved it's not cancer."
  Biologists are sceptical about a plant growing inside human body.
  "It is absolutely impossible for a green plant to grow from this small seed inside a man's body. In order for a plant to start growing from the seed, it needs a lot of conditions - light, then water and certain temperature," said Olga Baranova, a university professor.
*wing Inside Man's Lung             *

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1:14pm UK, Wednesday April 15, 2009                     
*Russian media has reported that a man who complained to doctors of severe chest pains was told he had a fir tree growing inside his lung.*







     Artyom Sidorkin found a fir tree inside his lung. Pic:East2west News


Reports say Artyom Sidorkin, 28, from the Urals region of Russia, is believed to have inhaled a seed which then sprouted inside him.
  Doctors were convinced he had cancer after he came to them complaining of agonising chest pains and coughing up blood.
  An X-ray showed what was believed to be a tumour, and he was rushed to the operating theatre.
  Surgeon Vladimir Kamashev from Izhevsk in the Urals was quoted as saying "We were 100% sure."
  "We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery."
  Before removing the major part of the man's lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy.
  "I thought I was hallucinating," said Dr Kamashev.
  "I asked my assistant to have a look: 'Come and see this - we've got a fir tree here'."
  "He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things."
  The 2in (5cm) spruce, which was said to be touching the man's capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.
  Mr Sidorkin, now recovering after the op, said in reports: "To be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me. But I'm just so relieved it's not cancer."
  Biologists are sceptical about a plant growing inside human body.
  "It is absolutely impossible for a green plant to grow from this small seed inside a man's body. In order for a plant to start growing from the seed, it needs a lot of conditions - light, then water and certain temperature," said Olga Baranova, a university professor.


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## kyektulu (Apr 15, 2009)

Wonder if he kept the tree and planted it?

Its crazy though, if you think of the external factors needed to grow a tree, it should be impossible for a seedling to sprout inside the human body, it must be a 10billion to one... if not finate to one...


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## Moonbat (Apr 15, 2009)

yeah, I saw this and thought how could it germinate from a seed inside a lung? where's the light from?

Obviously fir trees can grow without light, but just warmth and air. Seems odd.
So does the man have 1 lung now?

I know there's abad pun here somewhere. The poor guy will be lucky to live to thirty, or shoudl that be fir tree! Ah hahahaha!


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## Ursa major (Apr 15, 2009)

Isn't it the arteries that are meant to fur up? (You were right, Moonbat. )

This is really strange. I won't say it was impossible, because nature is designed to survive. Apart from anything else, trees and other plants would not survive if they weren't capable of growing in the temporary absence of light: seeds get lodged in crevices and covered in deep leaf-litter (and tarmac) and still make it into the light.


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## Pyan (Apr 15, 2009)

Doesn't look like a 5cm seedling to me - the needles are too big, and isn't that a broken off end? 

More likely it's the tip of a branch that he's accidently inhaled...

Here's a picture of a fir seedling, courtesy of the Forestry Department of British Columbia...


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## Overread (Apr 15, 2009)

how do you accidentally inhale a branch?
that said apparently there was a women once who get a seed trapped in here teeth - the thing took root and grew into her brain  I guess she really hated dentists (Because that would be been painfull!)


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## Pyan (Apr 15, 2009)

Perhaps he was eating it, and coughed...

Or possibly the whole thing was meant to have been released on the first of this month, not now...


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## BookStop (Apr 15, 2009)

pyan said:


> Doesn't look like a 5cm seedling to me - the needles are too big, and isn't that a broken off end?
> 
> More likely it's the tip of a branch that he's accidently inhaled...


 
that is exactly what I was thinking


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## Boneman (Apr 15, 2009)

> By Pyan
> _Or possibly the whole thing was meant to have been released on the first of this month, not now... _




Or Russia's April fool's day falls on the 15th April......... But on the other hand, at least he didn't pine away.........


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## Ursa major (Apr 15, 2009)

...and he'll be spruced up before you know it.


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## kyektulu (Apr 15, 2009)

Lol... I thought I would lay off the puns... but it seems everyone has beaten me to it. lol

Next time all puns will be mine! lol


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## Ursa major (Apr 15, 2009)

pyan said:


> Perhaps he was eating it, and coughed...


 
Or he was running through the trees when he coughed....


(That'll teach him to be more careful of cough-in-a-Rus forest.  )


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## the smiling weirwood (Apr 15, 2009)

Gross! Oh sickening...I'm going to go be violently ill now...


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## Drachir (Apr 16, 2009)

Thank goodness Russian medicine was capable of getting to the root of the problem.  On the other hand this article has a few more rational explanations. 

Did fir branch prick a lung?


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## dustinzgirl (Apr 16, 2009)

When I was little, my dad told me that if you swallow watermelon seeds then watermelons will grow in your belly.

I never believed him.

Now, I wonder how many watermelons I have expelled from my belly. 

Anyways, this is just so freaking weird!!!


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## Ursa major (Apr 16, 2009)

From Drachir's link:



> Assuming that the whole thing is not a complete hoax, it's more likely that a fir shoot was inhaled and lodged in the lung, *or perhaps fell in during the operation*, he said.


 
I know we're meant to think Russia is a bit backward, but open-air surgery (or theatres with their own fir trees, or theatre staff who've just come in from chopping down trees) seems more far-fetched than the original story.




> ...and the story ran on what would be April Fool's Day according to the Russian Julian calendar. Russian news agencies have been known to publish hoaxes in the past.


 
Much more like it.


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## kythe (Apr 16, 2009)

I'm not convinced it's not a hoax either.  No one's mentioned the photo yet, but what is the fir needle in?  Is that supposed to be a disembodied lung?  We see a ruler showing 5 inches that has been put up against it, but why would they have removed his entire lung rather than just the fir needle itself?  Maybe I'm just missing something obvious here..


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## kyektulu (Apr 18, 2009)

kythe said:


> I'm not convinced it's not a hoax either.  No one's mentioned the photo yet, but what is the fir needle in?  Is that supposed to be a disembodied lung?  We see a ruler showing 5 inches that has been put up against it, but why would they have removed his entire lung rather than just the fir needle itself?  Maybe I'm just missing something obvious here..



I thought that too, or maybe they were removing the lung, as they thought it was a tumor or something and discovered the mini fir in there afterwards?

Although you think it would show up on xrays.

If it is a hoax, well will someone tell me whats the point in staging this whole thing?
I cant understand why anyone would do it, surely there is no monetary gain to be had from this?


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## Ursa major (Apr 18, 2009)

They did it for the same reason that they did this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_tree

BBC ON THIS DAY | 1 | 1957: Spaghetti fools​


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## AE35Unit (Apr 18, 2009)

Lol thats so funny. As if a spruce could sprout inside someone's body! I know some seeds need stratifying before they germinate but thats stretching it a bit too far!


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