At this time of year, many people enjoy the fresh pine scent emanating from Christmas trees decorating homes and offices.

Now doctors are discussing what may be the world's first incident of a child actually breathing part of a Christmas tree into his lung.

Foreign body embedded in toddler's lung (courtesy: Canadian Medical Association)

"This is the first published case of a possible 'Christmas tree aspiration' of which we are aware," says Dr. Natalie Yanchar, a pediatric general surgeon at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Yanchar co-authored a report titled "Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree" in the Canadian Medical Association Journal with two of her colleagues, respirologist Dr. Paul Pianosi and pathologist Dr. Robert Fraser.

The case involves a toddler, age 2 1/2, who was puzzling physicians with ongoing pneumonia. He was referred to their department last season having "a history of recurrent right lower lobe pneumonia from the age of 10 months, beginning a few months after his first Christmas," according to the report.

"The boy was otherwise healthy, and his prenatal and neonatal histories were unremarkable. There was no history of choking episodes and no family history of respiratory illness. On examination, he was a healthy-looking child."

Dr. Natalie Yanchar

The doctors said when they listened to the boy breathe, "there were no crackles or wheezes audible over the lungs." But upon further investigation with a CT scan of the chest, they discovered a mysterious lump in the lower part of the boy's right lung.

After further tests, the child underwent surgery, and doctors found a "foreign body" looking conspicuously like a small sprig of an evergreen tree. It measured three centimeters long, and a half-centimeter around.

After surgery to remove the object, the boy was discharged from the hospital, and hasn't had any problems with pneumonia since.

"Foreign body aspiration needs to be considered in all cases of recurrent pneumonia in young children," the doctors write in their report.

"The holiday season is a time for children to explore and taste new things. ... We feel it merits consideration in the differential diagnosis of possible foreign body aspiration in a child shortly after the holiday season."