Docs Find Tree Growing in Man's Chest

The good news: You don't have cancer. The bad news: There's a Christmas tree growing in your lung.

When you were little, did your mom and dad ever tell you that if you swallowed a cherry pit, a tree would grow inside your body? It was an effective parenting tactic, but everybody knows you can't grow a tree inside your body. Right?

When 28-year-old Artyom Sidorkin began complaining of chest pains and coughing up blood, his doctors ran a few tests and found what they strongly suspected was a cancerous tumor on x-rays of his lungs. He was sent into surgery to have the growth removed. Routine stuff.

Routine, that is, until the surgeons sliced open Sidorkin's chest, Fox News reports. There was a growth, alright. It was green and had tufty needles. What had been pressing against the patient's capillaries was, in fact, a spruce tree about two inches long that had taken root in his lung. Doctors at Russia's Udmurtian Cancer Center suspect the man swallowed a seed or bud and somehow, the tree sprouted in his lung wall. Squeamish types should not click here to see a picture of the tree.

Expect a storyline riffing on this bizarre incident to show up on Grey's Anatomy before the season ends.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us