Parents may feel embarrassed if their child swallows something unusual, but they shouldn’t worry too much. Emergency rooms have handled all sorts of strange items found inside patients over the years, often successfully treating them and restoring them to good health.

Medical staff sometimes have to use unusual methods to extract these items, but serious injuries or fatalities are quite rare. Here are four of the weirdest things ever discovered inside hospital patients:

1) Hair
In one recent case, doctors removed a massive ball of hair from a teenage girl’s stomach. The hairball, which had grown over a long period, was about the size of a basketball. Experts think the girl had a psychological condition that led her to eat her hair. While hair itself isn’t harmful, it can cause digestive problems if not removed professionally. Usually, some thorough psychological counseling can help treat this condition.

2) Stones
After a fight with her partner, a woman in China swallowed several pieces of gravel, putting her in severe digestive distress. Unlike birds, humans can’t process stones, which can cause damage to the intestines and require surgical removal. Swallowing rocks can lead to serious internal injuries, so it’s definitely not a good way to deal with emotional pain.

3) Dentures
People who wear dentures might worry about accidentally swallowing them, which is exactly what happened to one woman. She had to admit to emergency medical technicians that her dentures slipped into her stomach while she was kissing her partner. Dentures usually show up on x-rays, and if swallowed recently, they may be removed through the throat while the patient is under sedation. After going through such an embarrassing and uncomfortable procedure, patients tend to be more cautious in the future.

4) Fir Tree
Though most foreign organic materials don’t survive long in the human body, there’s always an exception. Doctors found a fir tree growing in one man’s lung, thriving in the moist, oxygen-rich environment. Surgeons quickly removed the tree to prevent any further harm and advised the man to be careful about what he inhales.

Over the years, people have ended up at the emergency room for swallowing a wide variety of things, from stones and coins to magnets. Fortunately, with the expertise of attending surgeons, most of these situations end without serious complications. After such experiences, people usually become much more careful to avoid a repeat incident.