BOSTON (AP) -- Doctors say they have found a pea sprouting in the lung of a 75-year-old Massachusetts man.

Doctors feared the worst when they studied Ron Sveden's (SVEE'-dehn) X-rays and spotted a small dark spot.

The former teacher had worked for years smoking fish and had already had emphysema before he felt his health take a turn for the worse this summer.

By the time Sveden reached the hospital, he had a collapsed left lung and pneumonia. Two biopsies came back negative for lung cancer.

Feeding a scope down Sveden's throat, Dr. Jeff Spillane scraped away at an encrusted mass and discovered a sprout. Spillane says Sveden apparently inhaled a pea that took root in his lung.

Spillane removed it, and Sveden's health has returned.