After 51 Years, Turn Signal Lever Removed From Man’s Arm

After 51 Years, Turn Signal Lever Removed From Man’s Arm

The holiday season has been a time for Art & Betty Lampitt to take care of unfinished business from 1963.

After a dry spell, a gentle rain settled in to the Peoria, Ill. area. Art was a 24-year-old real estate agent coming back from a showing. Driving on bald tires in his ’63 T-bird, he hydroplaned on a curve into an oncoming semi.

Art recalls, “It was a God awful accident and it was not very probable that someone would come through something like that – they figured. And, Yeah, I was reported being dead by one of the radio stations.”

Art’s left arm was severely bleeding from what appeared to be surface wounds. The doctors pulled out close to 50 pieces of glass embedded into his skin on his left arm, he said.

He also had four to five broken ribs and his hip severely broken in several places. Art spent eight weeks in a body cast and had a tracheotomy to help him breathe easier.

Because all of the blood was assumed to be from glass cuts and the hip injury was so severe, doctors failed to notice a metal rod – the T-bird’s turn signal arm – was embedded in Art’s left forearm.
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Art and Betty met six months later on a blind date.

Let’s fast forward to 15 years ago when Art discovered there was something in his arm because of a metal detector at the courthouse in Jerseyville, Ill.

His doctor checked it out and thought it was from the accident, but no telling exactly what it was.

In fact, the doctor thought it could have been a surgical instrument forgotten and sewed up inside his arm. But, because it didn’t bother Art, the doctor said to leave it alone.

In early December, the arm started to pose a problem after Art carried a cement block. After feeling a little pain, days later he started to notice a protrusion. Art was referred to a specialist.

Doctor Lang removed the seven-inch rod on Dec. 31. The procedure lasted 45 minutes.

Art said, “I was amazed to see how corroded it was. It’s almost got all of the chrome off of it.”

And now that it’s out, what will Art do with it?

“Well, I don’t know. I thought I was going to make a keychain out of it, but as awful as it looks I don’t know.”