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  • Arthur and Betty Lampitt of Granite City - Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  • This is a crash scene photo from a 1963 accident between a truck and Arthur Lampitt's '63 Thunderbird - Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CREVE COEUR, MO (AP) – Fifty-one years ago, Arthur Lampitt of Granite City, Illinois, smashed his 1963 Thunderbird into a truck. This week during surgery in suburban St. Louis, a 7-inch turn signal lever from that T-Bird was removed from his left arm.

Dr. Timothy Lang removed the lever Wednesday during a 45-minute operation. Lampitt, now 75, is recovering at home.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the accident broke Lampitt’s hip, drawing attention away from the arm, which healed. A decade or so ago, his arm set off a courthouse metal detector. An X-ray showed a pencil-sized object, but since it caused no pain or hardship, Lampitt let it be.

He was moving concrete blocks a few weeks ago when the arm began to hurt for the first time, prompting surgery.
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com