On August 19, 1995, several alleged "implants" were surgically removed from two abductees who have been working with Sims. If preliminary findings are confirmed by further laboratory testing, these implants might provide hard evidence that the abduction phenomenon is a reality.

Dr. Leir removed a total of three objects, two from one patient and one from a second patient. Both specimens in the first patient, a woman, were located in her large toe, one on each side of the toe. The third object was removed from the back of the left hand of the second patient, a man, slightly above the web area between the thumb and the index finger.

According to Sims, these people were originally unaware that they had the implants. The objects were accidently discovered on x-rays taken for unrelated reasons. At the time, these individuals were seeing Derrel, as there were indications that they had a history of abduction. After extensive interviews were taken by Derrel, he ordered copies of their medical records and these objects came under scrutiny. There was no pain associated with these implants, and neither patient had any prior sensation of foreign objects in the body. Another peculiar fact is that these implants also left no sign of entry into the body; if there was an initial incision, it healed so perfectly that there was no outward scar.

To help locate the implants more specifically prior to surgery, Dr. Leir used a stud finder and a gauss meter. A gauss meter measures electromagnetic fields. When the gauss meter was put near the object in the man's hand, the meter "went crazy." Dr. Leir first tested the man with the gauss meter indoors, then took him outdoors away from all other magnetic influences. The results were the same. Similarly, when he used the stud finder, it lit up brightly over the man's hand, so they knew there was something there.

Prior to the surgery, both individuals received a type of local anesthetic which would normally anesthetize the area of surgery for up to six hours. While Dr. Leir was searching within the woman's toe for the first implant, he accidently touched the object and the patient "almost jumped off the table." Dr. Leir explained that the only time a surgeon gets this type of pain reaction under anesthesia is when something, in this case the object, is in close proximity to a nerve fiber. This is because the nerve fiber arouses the sensation of pain directly in the patient's brain, outside of the field of anesthesia. This happened in all three spots with both patients. When the objects were extracted, both patients had the same painful response. This led Dr. Leir to the realization that these objects were somehow attached to nerves.

The first object removed was flat and approximately triangular shaped, about half a centimeter on each side. Though metallic inside, it was covered with a thick, dense gray membrane. Dr. Leir tried to cut into the membrane with a scalpel, but couldn't.

When foreign objects have been in the human body for a long time, they do get covered with a dense fibrous coating, but usually such material can be scraped off with a blade. In this case, however, the membrane was nearly impossible to remove. A similar coating was found on all three objects.

Dr. Leir's next concern was how to safeguard and preserve the objects until they could be transported to a lab for analysis. In other cases of alleged implant retrievals, objects have reportedly turned to powder, disintegrated, or somehow disappeared. Dr. Leir decided the safest way to store these objects for transport was in the patients' own biological fluid. He had his nurse withdraw blood from each of the patients, then removed the serum in a centrifuge, mixed it with an anticoagulant preservative, and placed each implant in a vial filled with the fluid. Derrel Sims then took them back to Houston for further analysis.

Dr. Leir was responsible for the biological end of the implant research. After the objects were removed, he sent samples of surrounding tissue to a local pathologist. When the objects were taken out, Dr. Leir had noticed that the tissue around them was a discolored gray tone, not the color normally seen in tissue inflammation surrounding a foreign object. He received three reports back from the pathologist, one for each of the tissue samples. He was excited to see that none of the samples showed any signs of inflammation.

Click on the 'NEXT' arrow for page 2