A California man coughed up a nail 35 years after it embedded in his body.

Guy "Bud" Hart, 84, was mowing the lawn back in Minnesota in 1970 when he felt a pain in his throat, reports KXTV. It was accompanied by a trickle of blood.

Hart says, "It was like a bee sting, but I didn't think much of it."

But just a day later, he began to experience real pain.

"When I coughed, it was like I had a hot knife in there, cutting me."

He was rushed to the hospital with a 105-degree temperature. There, doctors found a small nail wedged inside his ribcage.

He was treated with penicillin for the infection, but did not remove the nail because it would require major surgery. Doctors assumed the nail would seal itself off in Hart's body.

Hart jokes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

During a doctor's visit three weeks ago, an internal camera saw that the nail had moved into Hart's lung. A procedure was planned to remove it when Hart experienced a coughing fit.

"I'd been having this tickle in my throat," Hart says. "Pretty soon, I started coughing. And it plopped right out."