Girl Blows Nose, Solves 6-Month Mystery

A California family has finally solved the six-month mystery of what was causing 5-year-old Khloe Russell's nose to constantly exude thick, green, stinky snot—a mystery that even stumped several doctors they visited. It turns out the reason the multiple rounds of antibiotics prescribed for what appeared to be a sinus infection never improved Khloe's symptoms is that she had a 1.5-inch safety pin wedged up her left nostril, reports ABC 7. When she finally dislodged it after her uncle's admonishing that she blow her "disgusting" nose, it was black and disintegrating.

"We were horrified," her mother Katelyn Powell says. "I was like, 'Did you put this up there?' She did, but she forgot to tell me." After some prodding, Khloe admitted to having built a castle with safety pins and pushing one up to see just how far it would go—but she thought she had dropped it. Powell writes in a Facebook post that Khloe is "healing like a champ," but she tells UPI she's gotten actual hate mail about the state of her 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," she says. (This boy had a LEGO stuck up his nose for three years.)