Once in awhile, I come across a story and all I am left wondering is -- how did that happen?! Here's another story for the how did that happen file. Derek Kirchen, 67, a retired construction worker, kept collapsing and he kept getting pneumonia. While the doctors said that could not be sure to the reasons why Kirchen was suffering in this way, they guessed it might be due to lung cancer -- even though the tests and x-rays failed to indicate he had the definitive signs of lung cancer. But that was their best guess -- lung cancer. An alarming suggestion to make to someone suffering symptoms with no other explanation. Kirchen was scheduled for exploratory surgery and what the surgeon found surprised everyone. When the black lump was removed from Kirchen's left lung, it turned out to be a cashew. Kirchen says he hasn't had a cashew since Christmas 2004.

In the news feature, Kirchen is quoted as saying, "I just don't know how it got there. It's a complete mystery. When I came round all the nurses were giggling, as they couldn't believe it was a nut. I can't remember choking on a nut. It's ironic really as I don't even like the darned things." Better a cashew than cancer. It's an odd but happy ending.

And not to make disparaging comparisons to one part of the world over another, but of all the news stories that seem most fit for the how did that happen file, two others occurred in the same part of the world. I refer you to the lung cancer patient found smoldering in his hospital bed and the one where surgeons removed a healthy kidney and left the patient with only one kidney -- the kidney riddled with cancerous tumors. The stories about George McGarry and John Heron did not have such a happy ending. It makes you wonder though -- is the medical community there different than elsewhere -- or are these events happening elsewhere but simply not making the news?