Doctors find 7-inch eroded metal mystery object in man's arm, man believes he knows what it is

GRANITE CITY, Illinois – Decades after a car wreck, doctors made a wild discovery inside an Illinois man’s arm.

When Arthur Lampitt’s arm began to swell after lifting a concrete block last week doctors took him into surgery where they pulled a seven inch eroded metal object from his left arm.

Lampitt now now tells KTVI-TV he believes it was a turn signal stalk from the car he was driving during a terrible crash in 1963.

At the time Lampitt was driving home on slick roads when he hydroplaned, lost control of the car and hit a semi truck head-on.

“I had 4 or 5 busted ribs and my hip socket was busted out the back end.” told Lampitt KTVI-TV.

Lampitt’s arm was cut up pretty badly, but once it healed it stopped thinking about the crash until 35 years later when he walked into a courthouse.

“I went through a metal detector and saw that there was a large metal object,” said Lampitt. “I said I don`t understand why that`s there.” said Arthur Lampitt.

Neither did doctors, they told Lampitt that a piece of metal may have been inserted during surgery after the accident.

But then he was lifting that concrete block, his muscles tightened up and his arm began to swell.

Lampitt went into surgery and they found the seven inch eroded rod.

“That’s the most unusual thing; he`s never seen something like that before,” said Doctor Timothy Lang

Lampitt then did some investigating. “I went back to look at the old pictures of my wreck and noticed my turn signal was missing. We started piecing things together and figured out that is what it was.”

Lampitt has been getting photo requests from all across the country. He asked me why this story was getting so much attention. I said, Arthur you do understand you had a 7-inch metal turn signal in your arm for three-fourths of your time on Earth? We both laughed.