This couple was concerned when they thought cancer had struck the 75-year-old man. But when doctors found that a pea had sprouted inside his lung, they couldn't believe it. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
He's a medical miracle. Ron Sveden, a lifelong smoker, and his wife feared he had cancer after x-rays revealed a mass in his lung.
But then the doctors found out it was actually a pea growing inside him!
"It wasn't just a miracle but it was a miracle that was funny and happy" his wife said.
75-year-old Ron Sveden had gone for hospital tests because of an increasingly severe cough.
Ron's wife said when the doctor saw the x-ray, he delivered bad news:
"I think he has cancer."
But then a surgical procedure discovered the bizarre truth—the split pea that had sprouted.
"Lo and behold, he found the culprit—a split pea that had sprouted! He says, 'It was a pea.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'It was a pea…'" Ron's wife explained.
Apparently a pea had gone down the wrong way, lodged in Ron's lung—and sprouted!
Dr. Len Horovitz, a lung expert in New York City, told INSIDE EDITION how something so strange could have happened inside the human body:
"The lung is warm, moist, has plenty of carbon dioxide, and it's a perfect place for a pea to sprout."
Ron's recovering at his home on Cape Cod, and he's got his appetite back. And yes, vegetables are on the menu.
"Friends bring Ron cans of peas and packages of peas, and a lady in church had said she'd made him a pea and hamburger casserole" his wife joked.
Ron remarked with a laugh, "I still eat peas."
That's right. Not only does he still eat peas, his first meal in the hospital after surgery included peas. He said he ate them very carefully.
