A 10-year-old girl underwent surgery to remove part of her lung after a pen cap remained lodged in her airway for more than seven years, with repeated misdiagnoses of tuberculosis (TB) and asthma delaying the correct treatment.
Speaking to The Times of India, the girl’s mother, Maimuna Shaikh from Dharavi, said her daughter, Mysha, developed a persistent cough and sudden weight loss. Over the years, several doctors treated her for suspected infections and prescribed antibiotics.
She was later referred to a BMC hospital, where doctors started her on presumptive anti-tuberculosis treatment despite a negative sputum test. A resident doctor associated with the case said the diagnosis was particularly challenging because the foreign object was lodged deep near the left lower lobe bronchus.
“We cannot prescribe Anti-Koch’s Therapy (AKT) unless there is a strong indication. Even with a negative result, the treatment history helps future doctors rule out TB,” the doctor said.
When Mysha’s condition failed to improve after TB treatment, her family sought treatment at another private hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with asthma and prescribed an inhaler.
The correct diagnosis came only after she was evaluated by Dr. Indu Khosla, a pulmonologist at SRCC Children’s Hospital (Narayana Health). According to Dr. Khosla, most doctors had treated the child for persistent pneumonia that would not resolve and prescribed anti-TB medicines. While she acknowledged that opinions may differ and doctors could not be blamed, she said the possibility of a foreign body in the airway should also have been investigated.
A CT scan revealed a collapsed left lung, while the remaining lung tissue appeared healthy, raising suspicion of an airway obstruction.
“During bronchoscopy, we found a pen cap deeply embedded in the airway. We had to involve the ENT team and administer additional anaesthesia to safely remove it,” Dr. Khosla said.
Mysha experienced immediate relief after the pen cap was removed. Within two to three weeks, the pneumonia had reduced significantly, and the healthy portion of her lung re-expanded.
However, after monitoring her for a month, doctors found that the damaged section of the lung would not recover. Due to severe infection and irreversible tissue damage, surgeons were forced to remove about one-third of her left lung.
Doctors say Mysha is expected to live a normal life despite the surgery. Her mother, however, said the family came close to losing their daughter because the actual cause remained undetected for years.
“We have lost count of the expenses so far,” Maimuna said.