Yet doctors administering an MRI on the 72-year-old Colorado man last month abruptly stopped the exam to tell him there seemed to be something metallic in his face.
Right after the MRI, Sanchez coughed up an inch-long nail.
His doctor, Jamieson Kennedy, told television station KKTV in Colorado Springs that the nail might have been embedded there as long as 30 years. The MRI's magnetic force apparently dislodged the nail, causing Sanchez to cough it up.
Sanchez says he can't remember ever using a nail like it.
"I'll probably frame it," he said Friday.