text: An terrified asthma sufferer was left coughing up blood after accidentally inhaling an earring into her lungs. The 41-year-old woman was getting ready for a  party to celebrate the New Year when she started to wheeze. Worried her asthma would get worse and ruin the festivities, she reached into her bag for her inhaler, according to doctors writing in the journal BMJ Case reports. Her blue salbutamol inhaler was uncapped in her bag, and she heard a ‘coarse rattle’ when she shook it. Despite this, she ignored the noise, believing it was due to a loose connection inside the device. The 41-year-old Australian woman had a medical emergency on New Year's Eve after inhaling an earring into her lungs. An X-ray shows the earring lodged in her right bronchus - the airway leading to the lungs . Doctors put a thin tube with a camera on the end known as an endoscope into the woman's lung, which showed the earring was covered in mucus (pictured) She took a deep inspiration, but immediately felt a painful scratch in her throat. She began coughing up blood, wheezing and became short of breath, and was rushed by ambulance to the A&E department of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, the report said. When she arrived, doctors ordered a chest X-ray, and saw something was wrong straight away. There was a mass that had ‘features consistent with a stud earring’, and a CT scan confirmed the earring was stuck in the woman’s right bronchus, one of the two main airways leading to the lungs. Doctors prescribed antibiotics to prevent any infection and then put a long, thin tube with a camera on the end into her throat - in a procedure known as an endoscopy. They were then able to examine the earring and remove it. They found large amounts of mucus around the earring, which was ‘the body’s attempt to expel the foreign body’ Dr Lucinda Blake, one of the doctors who treated the woman, told LiveScience. Alison Hall, 48, almost choked to death when she swallowed a false nail that shot out of her inhaler when she took a puff . If they had waited to remove the earring, the woman's body might have healed over the earring, embedding it within the bronchus, Dr Blake added. The woman made a full recovery, but in the report, doctors said her case highlights the need for people with asthma to be told about the dangers of storing their inhaler without a cap. Writing in the report, doctors concluded: ‘The importance of replacing caps on inhalers when not in use is illustrated and should be encouraged when inhaler technique is taught or reviewed.’ The news comes after MailOnline reported on the case of Alison Hall, 48, who almost choked to death when she nearly swallowed a false nail that had shot out of her inhaler when she took a breath. Ms Hall, 48, was at work when she felt her chest tightening and took out her blue salbutamol inhaler. She took a sharp breath and felt something shoot to the back of her throat where it became lodged. The mother-of-one ran outside in a panic when a neighbour came to her rescue and began pounding her back before calling 999. After five minutes of choking, a false nail finally came loose from the back of her throat and fell out onto the pavement. She believes the nail may have worked its way inside the inhaler through a gap at the top, and is now urging others to check their inhalers before use .
target: Australian woman felt a wheeze and took a breath on her uncapped inhaler .
  Felt a  scratch on her throat and began coughing up blood and wheezing .
  In hospital scans showed the earring was stuck in her right bronchus .
  It was removed and experts warned  leaving caps off inhalers is dangerous .