Girl, 5, blows safety pin out of her nose after 6-month mystery illness

HEMET, Calif., March 2 (UPI) -- A California 5-year-old who suffered a mysterious runny nose for six months finally managed to blow out the cause: a 1.5-inch-long safety pin.

Katelyn Powell of Hemet said three different doctors determined her 5-year-old daughter, Khloe Russell, was suffering from sinus infections and prescribed antibiotics.

"About six months ago, her nose just started [running] out of this one side. Green, green, green constantly and it stunk," Powell told KABC-TV.

She said the antibiotics had no effect on Khloe's nose.

"We went home, did 10 days of medication, didn't work," Powell said. "We took her even to the dentist because we thought it was her teeth -- nothing."

The mother said the answer finally came last weekend when her brother, Khloe's uncle, had the girl blow her nose.

"My brother was like, 'Your nose, it's disgusting. Blow your nose, blow your nose.' And she blows it and out comes the safety pin," Powell said.

The pin, measuring about 1.5 inches long, was black and partially disintegrated.

"It was a huge object. It was bigger than her nose," Powell said. "We were horrified. I was like, 'Did you put this up there?' She did, but she forgot to tell me."

Powell said reports indicating her daughter got the pin stuck up her nose while building a castle were erroneous.

"She found a safety pin and being a kid wanted to stick it up there to see how far it would go and thought she dropped it not realizing it had lodged itself in her nose. We went to the same doctor and to urgent cares contracted through our doctors when there wasn't an available appointment. All the doctors looked up her nose but didn't see anything. My daughter didn't mention anything because she didn't realize it had gone into her nose," Powell wrote in the comments to this UPI story.

Powell also told UPI that she's getting "some of the most horrendous hate mail in regards to my parenting skills. I hope people can understand that this can happen to their children and that it doesn't make their children stupid for doing it or not saying anything after."

Powell says Khloe is feeling much better since the pin came out of her nose.

"Khloe is healing like a champ!" she said in a Facebook post.