Hi, welcome to our site. I am Dr Saumya Mittal, MD. Read your query. That is a very significant question and i appreciate your problem. I will try my best to answer your query I think the symptoms are more of a coincidence. The food aspiration in a conscious oriented and alert person with no neurodeficit is an unlikely condition. You have mentioned yourself in the query that the food was coughed out almost immediately. The persistent cough may be due to another infection that may have been subclinical like a viral infection. This may have been in the process of surfacing anyways. So we need to treat that. Still, I would suggest doing a chest x ray PA view, just to be sure, along with sputum culture and sputum AFB smear. I hope this helps you. Inform the reports mentioned above/if any other so I can be of help further. I have given you the answer to the maximum considering the information provided. The results of the tests could further enhance my answer to you. Please do understand that some details could be extracted from a detailed history and examination. Please feel free to ask another query. I would be glad to help you. Looking forward to your return query with the details asked so that I can help you further. (If the answer has helped you, please indicate this) Best of luck. Dr Mittal. MBBS, MD (Internal Medicine), CC (Diabetes Mellitus), DNB (Neurology)