Is it possible to cough up a lung (or piece of) or a tumor? ?

Question

Please provide a link or proof of answer. Thanks!

Answer 1

ive coughed some white chunks before but i heard they were only mucus

Answer 2

No.

Your lungs are kind of glued to the inside of your chest. That's your your rib muscles are able to help expand them. By the time you managed to work an entire lung separated from the rib muscle, you wouldn't be able to cough it out (and you'd be dead a few moments later anyway).

I suppose if your lungs were truly rotten a small piece might fall into one of your bronchioles and be coughed out. But at that point your lungs would be full of all sorts of other goop and you wouldn't notice much of anything.

Answer 3

Yes it is possible!!!  I don't have any website, but I do have personal experience.   When I was working at one hospital, there was a chemical accident at a plant.  4 guys came in..... 3 were dead and the 4th was coughing up lung tissue.  We did not know that it was lung tissue at the time.  The stuff that he was coughing up was tested and later determined to be so.   I don't remember how much of his lungs he lost.  He was trached and the last that I can remember, he was still on a lung transplant list.  

I know of people who coughed up tumors too.  Most had gone through radiation for some time and would cough pieces of it every once in a while.  Not often though and not in every case.

So, the people that I have seen cough up lung tissue or tumors were in really bad condition.  I have never seen anyone who had healthy lungs cough up tumors or tissue.