A Peruvian woman is lucky to be alive after eating pork rinds and swallowing what she thought was a bone.
However, when 68-year-old Cella Tello started coughing up blood, she went to the emergency room, where doctors discovered the object was actually a nail that was piercing one of her carotid arteries.
Surgeon Diego Cuipal told Reuters that doctors had to conduct a “careful dissection” to remove the nail, creating a risk of “detaching a clot that could reach the brain,” per WWAY-TV.
“We were able to isolate the affected artery and we repaired it by sectioning it and we joined a healthy artery with another healthy artery,” Cuipal continued.
Tello has since healed from the incident, which occurred in February. WWAY reports all that remains is a large scar on her neck from the procedure.