Safety Pin Lodged in Girl's Nose for Five Years

An inch-long safety pin was discovered stuck up 6-year-old Lexi McCarder's nose. X-rays showed that the safety pin had actually opened inside her nasal passage.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. David White says the safety pin was dangerously close to her brain.

Lexi does not remember how it got there. Her parents, Mike and Susan McCarder, believe Lexi stuck the pin in her nose when she was about one. Incredibly, it has now been there for five years!

Lexi had frequent, unexplained ear infections and nose bleeds. Finally an MRI revealed the pin as the cause. Surgery was soon performed at Charleston's Medical University of South Carolina.  

Lexi got kisses from her little sister, her mom, and her dad before she was taken to the operating room. During surgery, Dr. White inserted a scope into her nose and carefully removed the corroded pin in pieces.

The pin was encrusted with bacteria.

"She's a lucky little girl," says Dr. White.

Lexi was then wheeled out of the OR and into the recovery room. Today she is just fine. And as for putting things up her nose, Dr. White has this advice: "The only thing you can put in your nose is your elbow."