Feather in Baby's Neck: 2 Inch Feather Stuns Doctors (PHOTO)
A feather in a baby's neck has stunned medical experts in Hutchinson, Kansas. Seven month old Mya Whittington had apparently been in pain for days and no one could work out what was bothering her. However, a 2-inch feather finally revealed itself on the side of her neck, stunning her family and medical experts.
Mya's dad, Aaron Whittington has told ABC News, "We were just pretty much in disbelief."
Whittington explained how his little daughter had been in pain since Saturday, however, when they noticed her neck beginning to swell they discussed whether they should take her to hospital.
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The 26 year old father explained: "I was at work and my wife noticed that the left side of her neck had started to swell, and she called me at work and asked if we should take her to the emergency room."
However, they ultimately thought that it could just be swollen glands and decided not to take her. But by the morning time they changed their minds again after seeing the swelling getting worse.
"Sunday morning, when we woke up, it had doubled in size and there was a pimple-looking thing on the end of it. We're looking at it and going, 'There's no way this is a swollen gland'," Whittington said, according to ABC.
When she arrived at hospital doctors initially were baffled by the condition, and put it down to a staph infection in her lymph nodes. They decided that they would have to drain the bump to allow the swelling to go down.
However, they were left even more baffled when they attempted to drain the area and nothing came out.
Hours later, the mother and father suddenly noticed what they described as a "half inch string" poking out from the side of her neck.
"[The pediatrician] threw on gloves and she pulled out a 2-inch feather and she's like, 'It's a feather.' And we're like, 'What do you mean it's a feather?' And she showed us," Whittington said.
"As far as how the feather got into the side of the neck, our doctor says we'll probably never really know. But her best guess is that she either inhaled it or tried swallowing it and it got lodged in the throat somewhere, and the body, just being crazy, just started to reject it and force it out the side of her neck."
After the extraordinary incident the parents recalled Mya crying and scratching at the area in question for a few weeks, but put it down to a likely ear infection or that she might be teething, according to the ABC News report.
Doctors have followed up with tests to ensure that she needs no further treatment or surgery, and they say her body should now heal on its own accord.
