06.09.2026 18:30
In Afyonkarahisar, 63-year-old Recep Arslan applied to the hospital with complaints of increased coughing, inability to swallow, and shortness of breath. In the examinations, a mass was seen in Arslan's lung, and his bronchoscopy revealed that the cause of his symptoms was a garlic that had slipped into his lung 6 months ago. The doctors were greatly surprised while removing the garlic, and Arslan began to breathe easily after the procedure. Arslan said he had swallowed the garlic raw, saying 'may it be a cure.'
Recep Arslan, 63, living in the Çobanlar district of Afyonkarahisar, was taken to Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University Hospital when his complaints such as coughing, difficulty swallowing, and inability to breathe increased.
THE CAUSE TURNED OUT TO BE GARLIC
Arslan, who was found to have a mass in his lung during examinations, was found to have garlic as the cause of his complaints when he underwent a bronchoscopy procedure. The garlic that had slipped from Arslan's windpipe into his lung was successfully removed by the hospital's Chest Diseases Specialist, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aydın Balcı, and his team.
"UNRELENTING COUGHING FITS WERE AT A LEVEL THAT WOULD KEEP HIM AWAKE AT NIGHT"
Balcı said that after his assistants, Yaşar İnkaya and Yunus Ardıç, evaluated the patient, they saw a mass in the lung.
Explaining that they took the patient for a bronchoscopy procedure, Balcı spoke as follows: "Before the procedure, we re-evaluated the patient's complaints. The chest pain that had been ongoing for about 6 months had started to intensify. The unrelenting coughing fits were at a level that would keep him awake at night. He had visited emergency services. We went into the procedure thinking the patient had a mass. We saw that the moving object was garlic. The patient had inhaled garlic into his lung 6 months ago, and since that day, his quality of life had decreased. When we removed the garlic, he began to breathe easily."
HE HAD SWALLOWED IT RAW SAYING "MAY IT HEAL"
Recep Arslan also stated that he had been swallowing raw garlic for two years, saying "may it heal."
Emphasizing that he had difficult days as his complaints of coughing, inability to swallow, and inability to breathe increased, Arslan said, "I had great difficulty breathing, and the coughing fits were increasing. Now I am fine. I was happy when the garlic came out. We had thought it was a mass."