Back in the early '70s I drove a propane delivery truck and one of my stops was a crematorium. Got to know the operator since I was there twice a month. Watched him load the burner/oven a few times and the bodies were in a thin plywood box. So I asked him what about the nails or screws that held the box together and he told me they just used a magnet to separate them from the ashes, an obvious answer.
Jump forward to 2004 and my Mother's cremation, I asked about removing nails/screws from her ashes and was informed that now the bodies are placed in a cardboard box, so no nails or screws. I'm sure this varies by city/state/country.
As far as the metal in the picture, I have a hard time believing that all came out of one leg. When he was wounded, didn't the medic or Dr. notice any of it hanging out of the wound? Why was it concentrated in one spot, or was it spread throughout his body and he just never noticed it? Again, hard to believe.
And in 65 years he never had an x-ray of a painful knee, or if it was throughout his body, he never had an x-ray of anything?
I really can't believe this metal came out of one leg.
Although I do believe the part about leaving shrapnel in, as I have a piece in me. I was wounded by a hand grenade booby-trap in Nam and still have one small piece in my right hand between my thumb and finger. The other small pieces came out of my arms and chest, the medics said to just leave them alone and they would surface like a large pimple, and they did. But the one in my hand was deep enough that it stayed, and I just never bothered to have it removed. It is small, the size of a match head, and when I broke my wrist and had screws drilled into the bone near it, the x-ray techs finally came and asked me what kept showing up on the x-rays, they couldn't figure it out......
Vern.
) and there was a WW I vet in the same ward.
