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What started out as an "annoying" cough, led to the discovery that a tiny toy pylon had been lodged by Paul Baxter's lung for the last four decades.

Baxter, now 50, remembers playing with the pylon when he was around seven years old. But when his doctor sent him for a bronchoscopy in Preston, England a couple years ago, he never imagined he'd find it inside of him. Baxter's doctor pulled the pylon from his bronchi — the passage leading into his right lung.

Baxter is planning on keeping the toy traffic cone as a souvenir, but won't be letting his young grandchildren near it anytime soon. (Paul Baxter) Baxter's case is detailed in a report published this month in The BMJ. It's titled: "An airway traffic jam: a plastic traffic cone masquerading as bronchial carcinoma"

Baxter spoke with As It Happens host Carol Off about the discovery of the pylon. Here is part of their conversation:

What did your doctors think they were dealing with when you first went to see them about this cough of yours?

My doctor just thought it was a chest infection and she just wasn't happy with the rattling noise in me lungs ... She thought it was a buildup of mucus. So that's why she sent me for the x-ray, just to I think give myself peace of mind that it was nothing serious.

What did they find in the x-ray?

They couldn't see anything specific but there was like a darkening — like a bit of shadow in me right lung. She wanted to investigate that further. That's why they ended up sending me for the camera down me throat.

"It's literally gone down the wrong pipe, if you will." - Paul Baxter

What did they find?

He said, "Yes. You have got something in your lung." He says, "But I can't reach it." He says, "It's something that's orange in colour and I don't know what it is."

So I had to go back and they put the longer camera down and they managed to grab hold of whatever it was at the bottom of me lung and pull it back out.

It came out of me mouth and it was this little, like, it was a miniature traffic cone that I used to have as a child.

Baxter remembers playing with this pylon when he was a kid. (Courtesty Dr. Mohammed Munavvar) Now normally, you swallow and it goes down into your stomach and passes out in the natural ways. He says, "You probably inhaled a breath and it has gone down with your breath into your lung." It has literally gone down the wrong pipe, if you will.

It was stuck there for 40 years.

Do you remember having a toy like that?

Oh yeah. I do. I do. I used to have all sorts. I had me fire engines, and me police cars, and me normal cars. I used to have all the stuff that a normal boy used to play with.

But you don't remember inhaling one?

No I don't.

So when the doctors pulled out this traffic cone out of your lung, what did they say? How did they react?

We all just started laughing. We couldn't believe it. They never expected anything like that, I obviously didn't expected anything like that.

The doctor said, "Yes, it's not common." He has known things to end up in people's lungs, but they've only been there, for what, a couple years at the most before either they've had to have an operation to have it removed or it comes out naturally. But for something to sit in someone's lungs for four decades, it has never been known.

How's your cough now?

My cough is fine. It was just a normal winter cough — you know what I mean when people get a cold in winter. That's what it was. It was just annoying me. I just wanted some antibiotics to clear it. And that's when it all kicked off.

What are you going to do with it? Are you going to keep it as a souvenir?

I'm just keeping it. It's just in a little pot.

Any kids or grandkids around?

Me grandkids haven't seen it yet. I've kept it away from them. I don't want them to swallow it as well. I'm not passing it on that way.

This interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity. For more on this story, listen to our full interview with Paul Baxter.