# Russian doctors operated upon a lung cancer patient
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 14, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042 "2009-04-14T06:19:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/1 "2009-04-14T06:19:29Z")
and found a [sapling](http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1247472) growing inside his lung . :eek::eek:
Another[link](http://news.indiainfo.com/article/0904132114_five_cm_long_spruce_plant_a_cancer_patients_lung/337581.html) here.
There is not much on this on my googling !
Is this a hoax ??
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/2 "2009-04-14T06:23:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> According to popular tabloid ‘Komsomolskaya Gazeta’…
I think that says it all.
Your second link doesn’t work, by the way.
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### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/3 "2009-04-14T06:24:15Z")
“Tabloid”, that’s english for “outright lies”, right?
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### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/4 "2009-04-14T07:04:55Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#):
>
> I think that says it all.
>
> Your second link doesn’t work, by the way.
Try this [link](http://news.indiainfo.com/article/0904132114_five_cm_long_spruce_plant_a_cancer_patients_lung/337581.html)
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### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/5 "2009-04-14T09:06:06Z")
I found an article in Russian that has pictures, both of Mr. Sidorkin and the spruce (on page 2 – warning: gross). The text is essentially the same as the previously linked articles.
[http://fraza.ua/news/14.04.09/66878.html](http://fraza.ua/news/14.04.09/66878.html)
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### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/6 "2009-04-14T10:44:19Z")
So, It is true ! :eek:
Unless that photo is a fake .
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/7 "2009-04-14T11:11:19Z")
I remember a US story a few years back about a seed that had germinated in a child’s eye before it got removed. The doctors said the most surprising thing was that there was no record of it having happened before – that it would seem to be a pretty good environment for that happening, and should happen more often than it does.
For whatever that’s worth.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/8 "2009-04-14T12:39:48Z")
I am skeptical of the spruce story.
For one thing, seed of cold-hardy trees generally need a period of cold stratification before they’ll sprout. And seedlings (which are not adapted to living off nutrients in mammalian capillaries) quickly exhaust food in the seed coat and die without light.
Foreign bodies do wind up sometimes in the lung, but this sounds like tabloid exaggeration or invention.
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### Author:  [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/9 "2009-04-14T15:08:04Z")
So my Grandmother _was_ right about not swallowing watermelon seeds . . .
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### Author:  [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/10 "2009-04-14T20:23:12Z")
I thought sunlight was necessary for a plant to actually turn green. Shouldn’t the sapling in that pic be much paler?
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/11 "2009-04-14T21:05:22Z")
I can believe it sprouted - there are enough reports of seeds getting into orifices (e.g. nose) and starting to sprout. But the size of the reported seedling is pretty startling - hard to imagine it getting that large before dying. The seed itself carries only so much in the way of nutrients to get the seedling started, then the plant needs light etc. to continue on.
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### Author:  [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/12 "2009-04-14T21:07:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> I am skeptical of the spruce story.
>
> For one thing, seed of cold-hardy trees generally need a period of cold stratification before they’ll sprout. And seedlings (which are not adapted to living off nutrients in mammalian capillaries) quickly exhaust food in the seed coat and die without light.
>
> Foreign bodies do wind up sometimes in the lung, but this sounds like tabloid exaggeration or invention.
To me, it looked more like a small bit of a spruce branch, rather than an actual sapling.
Would it be likely that he could have inhaled a bit that large without realizing it, or choking on it?
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### Author:  [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/13 "2009-04-14T22:21:51Z")
A friend sent me that link earlier today.
> [@PoorYorick](#):
>
> So my Grandmother _was_ right about not swallowing watermelon seeds . . .
Ha. This is what I first thought.
> [@Projammer](#):
>
> I thought sunlight was necessary for a plant to actually turn green. Shouldn’t the sapling in that pic be much paler?
> [@badbadrubberpiggy](#):
>
> To me, it looked more like a small bit of a spruce branch, rather than an actual sapling.
>
> Would it be likely that he could have inhaled a bit that large without realizing it, or choking on it?
Without sunlight and nutrients a seed couldn’t possibly germinate. Most likely he inhaled a sprig.
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### Author:  [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/14 "2009-04-14T22:34:16Z")
> [@badbadrubberpiggy](#):
>
> Would it be likely that he could have inhaled a bit that large without realizing it, or choking on it?
Most probably that was it. Not that he could have breathed in that thing through his nose, but perhaps tried to swallow it and instead of going into the stomach, it somehow found its way into the lungs and got lodged there.
Now, why someone would want to swallow a small branch of a tree is something I cannot explain, but then hey, this world is full of weirdos doing weird things and just when you think this is the weirdest thing someone can do, along comes someone who can beat the previous one.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/15 "2009-04-15T00:48:54Z")
I’ve heard of something like this happening before. A teenage girl suffering from lung problems was discovered to have a sprig from a tree growing in one of her lungs. Apparently she’d fooled around with a Christmas tree while small and pulled it down on herself, and apparently breathed in a chunk that survived, but grew very slowly without sunlight.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/16 "2009-04-15T01:09:29Z")
True, not true, complete lies, whatever–I’m still grossed out.
I may never eat plants again…
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### Author:  [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/17 "2009-04-15T03:49:27Z")
I am sticking by my guns: this is not possible. Where is QtM? And I ran this by my cousin the biologist. She says no sun no growth. Should we revist the baby foot in the pregnant woman’s belly?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-doctors-operated-upon-a-lung-cancer-patient/493042/18 "2009-04-15T04:04:48Z")
> [@Rack-a-Bones](#):
>
> I am sticking by my guns: this is not possible. Where is QtM? And I ran this by my cousin the biologist. She says no sun no growth.
Quite right. This story is ridiculous. A spruce seedling cannot produce food to grow without light; therefore the seedling cannot end up being larger (by weight) than the seed it came from.
[The middle seedlings](http://pfc.scf.rncan.gc.ca/diseases/nursery/images/full_images/fig81.jpg) here would be about the maximum size a seedling could grow without light, and in any case they would be pure white.
From the photo (if it is authentic) the item removed was a sprig off an adult spruce tree, not a seedling that grew inside the lung. This is also shown by the fact that it has no root.