Who knew   Playmobil could be so grievous ? A 47 - yr - old serviceman from Preston must have been extremely relieved to find out that the source of his chesty cough was not lung genus Cancer , but a tiny toy traffic cone inhaled 40   years in the beginning .

Doctors look up the man to a respiratory clinic when he came to them with a cough he had n’t been able to shake for over a year .

Because he was a long - term smoker and had only recently recovered from a bust of pneumonia , medical officer conceive his symptom were probably the termination of a neoplasm in the lung .

Scans did discover a slew in the lung , but it was not until medics take out the cone during a flexible   bronchoscopy that they realized it was a Playmobil traffic cone and nothing more sinister .

According to a reputation in theBritish Medical Journal , the man admit to on a regular basis bring with   – and , in some cases , bury – piece of Playmobil as a nestling .

“ He recalled being given this Playmobil arrange for his seventh natal day and believes he aspirate the miniature traffic cone soon after , ” the reportsays .

The doctors were surprised   that the plaything had gone undetected for 40   years , with the affected role having no idea there was a small piece of plastic lodged in his lung .   It was n’t until he   began coughing up mucous secretion and feel in the main unwell some 39 twelvemonth subsequently that he detect any side effects .

While it is common for children to breathe in and swallow low toy pieces , the account adds , the decades - long prison term - lag between inhalation and the oncoming of symptom is exceedingly strange .

" To our cognition this is the first case of a TFB [ Tracheobronchial foreign torso ] that was overlook this length of clip , " the report explains .

This could   be because the patient was so young when it happened . The report describes how the airways could have remodeled   itself as it conform to the miniature . They suppose the retinal cone could have been steep into the   lung ’s facing when he was still a child , with the   facing then educate around the toy .

But the good word is   the man is now sound and , four months on , his coughing has all but disappeared .