August 16, 2010
Doctors discovered a pea lodged in a patient's left lung that had sprouted and grown fully half an inch before persistent coughing sent the 75-year-old man to Cape Cod Hospital. The patient, Massachusetts resident Ron Sveden, underwent 10 days of medical tests before the cause of his collapsed lung was pinpointed. Ronald G. Crystal, M.D., Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and an expert in genetic medicine, explains that the environment in the lungs can be conducive to fostering plant growth.