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Tissue samples have been taken from your lungs during the course of an examination.

When we breathe, the air gets into the body via the respiratory tract. The respiratory tract can be divided into the upper and the lower respiratory tracts. The nose and throat form part of the respiratory tract. The lower respiratory tract begins at the larynx in the throat. It includes the windpipe and the bronchia. You need lungs to breath. When we breathe in, oxygen enters the lungs and accumulates in the blood. This blood then flows to the heart. The heart then pumps the oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. All of the organs are supplied with oxygen as a result.

The examination involved inserting a tube into the windpipe via the mouth or nose. Sometimes too, the tube is inserted, instead, into the oesophagus, because the oesophagus runs between the 2 lungs. A camera is attached to the end of the tube. This camera then sends images to a screen during the examination. It can then be seen whether the tissue is healthy or changed.

A probe was then pushed through the tube in order to take the tissue samples from you. The probe was chilled so that a piece of tissue freezes fast to the tip of the probe. Tissue samples are then usually sent to a laboratory where they are examined more closely below the microscope.