A 7-year-old Chinese boy who had been complaining about a mysterious bad smell for two years had a metal screw stuck in his left nostril.

The unnamed boy from Jiaozuo, China’s Henan Province, had been telling his parents that he smelled something bad for at least a couple of years, but they could never figure out what it was. They certainly couldn’t smell what it was, and the 7-year-old child couldn’t really describe the smell, so for a long time, they ignored his claims as make-believe. However, his complaints became more frequent in recent weeks, so they decided to take him to a doctor. An examination of the boy’s nostrils revealed a mysterious black mass in his nose, a find later confirmed by a CT scan of his head.

The mysterious object lodged in the boy’s nose couldn’t be identified, and it was so high up his nasal cavity that doctors were worried that they might cause serious damage while attempting to take it out. Leaving it in the boy’s nose wasn’t an option either, as it looked surrounded by pus, no doubt caused by an infection. After consulting with his parents and asking for their consent, an ENT specialist decided to operate on the boy.

The doctor reportedly tried three different tools before finally dislodging the black foreign object from the boy’s nose. It was covered in several layers of nasal secretions and dried pus, so no one really knew what it was at first, but after cleaning it, doctors realized it was a metal screw.

“Because the object was stuck in the nasal cavity for so long, it was impossible to see what it was at first,” a hospital spokesperson told Elephant News. “After careful cleaning, it was discovered that it was a metal screw.”

The 7-year-old boy made a full recovery and no longer sensed the bad smell he had been complaining about for so long. Doctors warned that objects stuck up children’s noses are not uncommon, pointing out that symptoms such as abnormal nose picking, and thick nasal discharge with a peculiar smell should not be ignored by parents. However, they admit that such objects are usually discovered within hours or days after getting stuck.