(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast 39, released on January 14, 2026.)
In December 1946, 16-year-old Melbourne, Australia resident Shirley Skinner received some awful news: she was going to die unless a 2-inch (5 cm) hooked nail, which had embedded itself in the lower lobe of her right lung, was removed.
She had swallowed a nail—actually, two nails—when she was just two years old. The nails had been bent while being pulled from a packing crate. One was recovered at the time, but the second went missing. A doctor examined Shirley and found no evidence that she had swallowed it, and she went on to live a healthy, active life.
That changed in July 1946, when she suffered a severe hemorrhage. An X-ray revealed the missing nail lodged in her lung. It was clear that the nail had to be removed, but no hospital in Australia was equipped to perform such a procedure.
Her only chance of survival was to travel to the United States, where Dr. Chevalier Jackson could operate. The Philadelphia surgeon, widely regarded as the father of endoscopy, had developed a specialized bronchoscope capable of safely removing the nail.
Dr. Jackson offered to do the surgery for free if Shirley could come to the US accompanied by her mother. This is 1946, and the boat fare alone was very costly, estimated at £800 (approximately US$46,400 today). On top of that, there were the expenses for the train ride across the United States, hotel rooms, and food. That was money that the Skinners simply did not have.
But once her story made the papers, Australians generously chipped in and donated £2000 (nearly US$116,000 today). In addition, Australian National Airways offered to fly Shirley and her mom to the United States free of charge.
Mrs. Skinner said, “I never imagined that there were so many big-hearted people in Melbourne. We have all been touched to the heart by the generosity of all those good people who have rallied to our aid. God bless them all.”
They left Melbourne on December 22 and arrived in San Francisco on Christmas Day. But Temple University Hospital was still a long way off. The United States is vast, and Shirley still had to make the journey from the West Coast to the East Coast.
That posed another problem. Crossing the Rocky Mountains by military aircraft would normally require pressurized oxygen at high altitude, something doctors feared could be dangerous in her condition. On their advice, flying was ruled out. Instead, Shirley crossed the country by train, departing San Francisco on December 27.
It’s unclear why she wasn’t at the hospital, but by the time Mrs. Skinner arrived there on Thursday, January 2, 1947, the surgery was already over. (My hunch is that Shirley stayed in the hospital overnight, while her mother went back to the hotel room to sleep.) It was successful, and doctors felt that she would need about 10 days to recover, after which Shirley and her mother could begin their journey home.
It would take longer than planned. Dr. Jackson gave one final examination, and after concluding that her lungs were performing normally, he discharged her on February 18, 1947.
Prior to leaving, Shirley asked if she could take the nail back with her as a souvenir. That request was denied. That’s because every object that Dr. Jackson ever removed was carefully catalogued and stored away for future reference.
Today, his entire collection of swallowed or inhaled objects—2,374 items in all—is housed at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Images of many of these objects are available on the museum’s website, but because none are individually identified, I wasn’t able to determine whether one of the nails is the one removed from Shirley’s lung. Even if it isn’t shown online, my hunch is that it remains somewhere within the collection.
