When browsing the internet, especially social networks, it’s normal to run into incredibly unique stories that, despite being old, are still shared today.

Just yesterday, one of my Facebook connections revealed the bizarre tale of little Mya Whittington, which at first would have made the hoax scre*m but ultimately proved to be accurate to the point of garnering media attention.

The incident happened in Hutchinson, a US city and the county seat of Reno County in Kansas, in December 2012.

Mya, a young child who was not yet seven months old at the time of the facts, is the main character.

Mya’s parents first spotted an unusual swelling on her neck on December 8, 2012, in the region right below her jaw.

They take the girl to the Hutchinson Regional Medical Center’s emergency room out of concern.

Once they get to the hospital, a swift diagnosis is made: the doctors who examine it think it might be a swollen gland and are likely to provide an antibiotic.

Then the family is taken home.

Mya’s grandmother later takes the infant back to the hospital after discovering a weird pimple on the swelled area, which had grown to the size of a golf ball and a half.

The doctor treats her for a staph infection on her lymph nodes, gives her more antibiotics, breaks apart the pimple, and then uses a marker to delineate the enlarged spot so that he can later track any growth or shrinkage.

And here is when the odds start to happen.

The child’s parents discover something resembling a stick poking out of their daughter’s cheek when left alone in the space.

They decided to take her to their pediatrician when the doctor failed to act.

A black feather measuring 2 inches (approximately 5 centimeters) long was later discovered to have been lodged in the girl’s cheek during the second visit.

Doctors’ speculation that young Mya had long ago ingested or inhaled the feather rejected from the body after spending a long time between the neck and jaw was the only plausible explanation for the foreign body’s presence in her cheek.

In truth, Mya’s mother, Emma, said in the many interviews subsequently made public that she had a feather cushion that she had opted to toss away following the accident.

Fortunately, this bizarre occurrence had no adverse effects, and the doctors chose to let the enlarged spot heal naturally rather than intervene.

The spouses shared their story on several national talk shows, including “Anderson Cooper Live” (the second video is visible at the bottom of this writing – ed), and in a Japanese program that in May 2013, sent a camera crew to Wichita, Kansas, where they filmed and interviewed Aaron and Emma. As was mentioned at the beginning of the article, this story sparked a lot of interest.

The video of the parents’ interview is shown below.

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