Doctors at Ha Tinh General Hospital have just successfully discovered and operated on a foreign object, a 20cm long palm branch, in the chest of patient Tran Thi H (95 years old, residing in Thanh Binh Thinh commune, Duc Tho district, Ha Tinh province).
According to Ms. H's family, in March 2023, while in the garden, Ms. H unfortunately fell onto a palm tree (known locally as an ash tree) and suffered bleeding in the right chest area.
After that, the family took her to many places for examination and treatment but could not find the foreign object remaining inside but only treated the wound. After nearly 2 months of treatment, the wound dried up and she was allowed to return home.
While at home, Mrs. H occasionally felt a dull pain. In early April 2025, the old wound was swollen, painful and had a leak, so her family took Ms. H to Ha Tinh General Hospital.
Here, after examining and taking a chest CT scan, it was discovered that there was a right pulmonary abscess accompanied by a foreign object from the right back of the chest - next to the spine that penetrated the right lung to the lung tops.
After that, doctors from the General Surgery Department and the Trauma Department performed surgery to remove the foreign object, a 20cm long palm branch, then cleaned the wound and drained the abscess.
After surgery, the patient has been cared for and treated for nearly a month now. Currently, the patient's health is stable, he can sit up and eat on his own. The patient is expected to be discharged in the next few days.
Doctor Tran Duc Dung - Head of the General Surgery Department, who directly operated on the patient, said that this was a rare case.
