Many moms have jokingly warned their kids: "Don't eat the watermelon seeds or else you'll get a watermelon growing in your stomach!" It's an old wives' tale, but could a plant really grow inside you? Ron Sveden, 75, is living proof. After a cough became increasingly worse and his energy decreased dramatically, Ron went to the hospital where doctors discovered a mass on his collapsed lung. Tests for cancer came back negative, leaving doctors baffled as to what could be causing Ron's condition. Finally, a thoracic surgeon went in and made a shocking discovery: Ron had aspirated a pea, and that pea had split and begun to sprout in his lung!

Ron is now feeling great and "pea free," but how could this have happened? "Sometimes instead of food going down the esophagus, it can go down the trachea or the windpipe," explains Dr. Ian. "And if it goes down the windpipe, it can actually get into the airways of the lung, the smaller bronchia. Typically, your body will reject foreign objects, but if it gets lodged in the lung there’s no way to throw it out." Dr. Ian states that because the lung is a warm, moist place, the conditions are great for some things to grow and for the peas, it happened to be a place for them to grow.

Dr. Ian details a few symptoms that may point to having aspirated something: "Shortness of breath and coughing up specks of blood, those are two major things to look for if you’ve aspirated something." Dr. Ian adds that you may not necessarily have pain because your body may have adapted to the aspirated item.

To prevent the possibility of aspirating something, Dr. Ian says, "The first rule of thumb, especially when it comes to meat and vegetables, is to chew, chew, chew, chew, chew! Secondly, if you’re having coughing fits, don’t eat and cough at the same time because that’s another way of [food] going down." Lastly, Dr. Ian recommends swallowing your food with fluids so you wash them down the right way.