No, you can't really "cough up a lung." But according to a new case report in the latest New England Journal of Medicine, it's possible to get uncomfortably close. Two days of chest pain drove a 40-year-old woman to Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, United Kingdom, for relief.
Don't worry—despite the old phrase, it's physically impossible to “cough up a lung.” Instead, persistent and violent coughing may lead to: Damaged blood vessels – Pressure from an intense cough may cause some of the delicate blood vessels in the eyes, nose or anus to rupture.
Tonsil stones look like small white or pale yellow bumps on your tonsils. Usually they're the size of gravel or slightly larger. They can smell foul and cause bad breath. Other typical symptoms include: sore throat, the sensation of something being stuck in the back of your throat, and problems swallowing.
What is phlegm? Phlegm is the specific name for mucus that you cough up from your lungs. Your doctor might call it 'sputum'. And mucus is a jelly-like liquid found all over the body that protects you from infection.
According to Tufts Medical Center, despite the old phrase, it's physically impossible to "cough up a lung." However, if a coughing fit is severe or lasts for an extended period of time, parts of the respiratory system and other areas of the body can be damaged.
Mucus in the lungs is known as phlegm or sputum.
Globus is the medical term for the feeling of something stuck in the throat. The term globus comes from the last route for globe or sphere. Hence, it is used to describe a feeling of a large lump or “ball” of mucus in the throat.
Needless to say, if you cough up a blood clot that looks like your bronchial tree, see a doctor immediately. Bleeding that much into your lungs or airways is a life-threatening condition, and unfortunately, the man did not survive.
Catarrh is a build-up of mucus in an airway or cavity of the body. It usually affects the back of the nose, the throat or the sinuses (air-filled cavities in the bones of the face). It's often temporary, but some people experience it for months or years. This is known as chronic catarrh.
"It is very uncommon to cough up cancer, but she did it," he said. Dr. Edward Kim, chief of head and neck medical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told ABC News the woman's coughing fit might have acted like a surgeon's scalpel.
There's no specific test to identify lung injuries. After checking your symptoms and vital signs, your doctor may order a chest X-ray. This will determine the amount of fluid in different parts of your lungs. Since lung injuries and heart problems often share symptoms, this test can also show if your heart is enlarged.
Dust that reaches the sacs and the lower part of the airways where there are no cilia is attacked by special cells called macrophages. These are extremely important for the defense of the lungs. They keep the air sacs clean. Macrophages virtually swallow the particles.
What is a heart cough? In heart failure, your heart muscle has dysfunction that might be due to weak contraction or stiffness. This can allow fluid to back up in yout lungs, creating a condition called pulmonary edema. Your body coughs persistently in an effort to eliminate the excess fluid.
Lung scraping is a medical procedure in which a doctor removes excess fluid from the space between the chest wall and the lungs. Healthcare professionals will likely refer to lung scraping as thoracentesis. Thoracentesis is not a standard treatment for COPD.
1) Signs and symptoms of COPD
The colour of your spit or phlegm may change from frothy and white to slightly yellow or green if you have a chest infection. Breathlessness occurs on most days which can be worse on exercise and during chest infections.
The most common symptom of bronchiectasis is a persistent cough that brings up a large amount of phlegm on a daily basis. The phlegm can be clear, pale yellow or yellow-greenish in colour. Other people may only occasionally cough up small amounts of phlegm, or none at all.
The primary symptom of chronic bronchitis is mucus production, including a wet cough that produces thick, discolored (yellow, green or yellow-grey) mucus from your lungs (productive cough).
Tonsil stones, or 'tonsilloliths', are small lumps of hardened material that can form in your tonsils. They can cause bad breath and most commonly occur in teenagers. The stones are usually small — it is rare to have a large tonsil stone.
If you have ever looked at the back of your throat and noticed any hard white or yellowish balls in the tonsils, or if you have ever coughed or choked up these small white or yellow balls, then you have a history with tonsil stones.
Gary Walton, the head and neck surgeon who treated Osborne, said, "It is very uncommon to cough up cancer, but she did it. "We suspect the tumor grew on a stalk at the back of her mouth which is very difficult to detect. Somehow she dislodged this and the stalk snapped and she coughed up the tumor."
However, the tumor had been growing slowly after 5 years, and eventually invaded the trachea and then been coughed up some of it. The thymoma is the most common primary tumor of the anterior mediastinum and can behave in an aggressive fashion.