One minute, a young American couple are out on a romantic drive in the woods. The next minute, the wife has a Christmas tree coming out of her neck.

A boy out fishing is, literally, taken hook line and sinker and nearly chokes to death on a cruel barb.

Perhaps, most extraordinary of all is the story of a man who nearly dies after being pumped full of enough air to blow up a thousand party balloons. In each story, the courage and resourcefulness of friends and medics save lives and doctors perform feats of derring- do to locate and expel these unwelcome, lethal guests.