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A man undergoing treatment for heart failure coughed up an enormous, intact blood clot that formed a perfect cast of the air passageways of his lung.

The completeness of the clot, once unfolded onto blue medical cloth, astounded doctors; they could trace the three branches of the upper lobe of the lung, the two branches in the middle lobe and five segmental branches in the lower.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or A patient coughed up this huge blood clot that perfectly replicates the airways of his lung Back to video

Spanning about 15 cm by 17 cm, it was such a perfect cast of airways that they knew precisely where the clot had come from, the right bronchial tree of the patient’s lung.

Although called a tree, it more resembles roots. Imagine tugging on a robust dandelion when suddenly the entire intricate root system slips out of the ground without bits snapping off as it came.

Rather than doctors pulling the red, bloody mass out of the patient’s lung, however, the man unexpectedly hacked it out himself, as the doctors later noted: “During an extreme bout of coughing.”