AP
A lump on the side of a baby girl's neck that her parents thought was a huge pimple turned out to be a FEATHER.
Emma and Aaron Whittington took seven-month-old Mya to hospital when the lump grew to the size of one and a half golf balls and at first doctors believed it was an infection.
But after further investigating, they discovered that a two-inch-long black feather had got lodged underneath the baby's skin. It's believed she may have ingested the feather from a pillow.
"They thought it was a swollen gland," said dad Aaron, from Hutchinson, Kansas, US.
Doctors gave Mya antibiotics and sent her home but then Mya's grandmother took her back after a 'pimple' appeared on the swollen area, making her 'look like She Quasimodo'.
A doctor broke the pimple to try to drain it and drew marks on Mya's face to measure whether the swelling increased. But it was only after the doctor left, that the Whittingtons noticed what appeared to be a string or stick emerging from the spot.
AP
Then later that day, Mya's pediatrician she asked what it was, put on a pair of gloves and plucked a two-inch-long black feather from the swollen area of the child's neck.
It's believed that the baby swallowed or inhaled the feather, which apparently pierced the inside of her cheek or throat and then, over time, her body forced it out the other way.
The Whittingtons said they had a down pillow on their bed, but Mya wasn't normally on it. "Now it's headed for the trash," mum Emma said.
Unfortunately, Mya's ordeal isn't over yet. The swollen area has a hard knot in it about four centimeters in size. If the knot doesn't break up on its own, Mya is headed for surgery in Wichita to remove it.