Texas Doctors Solve Mystery Of Boy's Gross Smelling Nose

Doctors at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio helped a teenage boy figure out why his nose smelled so gross.

A 15-year-old boy first started seeing doctors because he had a chronic stuffy nose and couldn't smell things very well, according to a report published in the medical journal JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.

He was an otherwise healthy teen so doctors told him it was likely allergies and prescribed him a nasal spray and antihistamines.

What seemed like a routine medical issue took a weird turn a year later. The teen still complained about his stuffy nose, but a new issue appeared. Every time he blew his nose "a pungent, foul odor filled the room," according to the medical journal.

"The patient reported that he did not feel he had bad breath, but he was embarrassed that every time he blew his nose there was a foul odor," the authors wrote.

Doctors ordered a CT scan for the teen, and that's when the found what was causing the weird smell. Inside the boy's nasal cavity was a 9mm metallic BB pellet.

The boy's family told doctors that the teen was shot in the nose with a pellet gun when he was 8 or 9 years old. He seemed fine at the time so his parents didn't take him to the doctors. It wasn't until years later that the "foreign object" in his nose started causing the strange stinky smell.

Doctors were able to surgically remove the BB pellet and the teen can now breathe freely.

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