A Tree Grows In Thy Lung!

Last month, circulating on the internet, was this story. A Russian man made headlines after it was said that he has a small pine tree growing in his lung, apparently from inhaling a seed or bud that then germinated in his lung. The X-ray above shows the plant growing inside his pulmonary cavity.

OK- another hoax!

But this story is absolute nonsense. The gruesome photo above released with the story claims to show the spruce jutting from a clump of lung tissue. The plant looks firm and healthy, with bright green needles. It’s as if it had been grown in the best soil with plenty of sunlight. It lacks roots in the way fresh clippings do.

Both Prof Tony Linegar, cardio-thorax surgeon at the University of the Free State, and Prof Gillian Ainslie, a pulmonologist at the University of Cape Town said that tumours that look like a ball of hair and teeth can grow in a human body, but no plants.

Prof Chris Bolliger, pulmonologist at the University of Stellenbosch, said the X-ray that was showed and the tissue sample with the "tree" in it do not concur. Bolliger and Linegar said that plants can not show more density than bone on the X-ray. And the "tree" could not have germinated in the lung.

So a Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Mary Smith novel), but not in lung tissue!