It's difficult to comprehend but investigators say a bone stolen from a cadaver was implanted in a North Texas man's neck.

While that body-snatching investigation continues, the patient is going to court for answers and to doctors for peace of mind.

Jim Livingston endured a herniated disk in his neck for nearly a year - even walking caused great pain.

"I thought I was having a heart attack it hurt so bad," he said.

In 2005, his surgeon, removed the disk, and replaced it with a small bone from a donor.

"I considered the surgery very successful," Livingston said.

Then last year, Livingston got a disturbing call from the hospital. Investigators believe the bone in his neck was stolen.

They say a company, Biomedical Tissue Services, paid off funeral home directors to allow the company to harvest tissue and bones from bodies inside the funeral homes, without the grieving families ever finding out.

According to the FDA, BTS supplied the tissue to five other firms. The Food and Drug Administration got involved, publicizing a voluntary recall of the "unused" tissue, citing concerns over the donors' medical histories.

"It was very surreal. At first I asked them if they wanted the bone back. It wasn't really an option, given it was grafted into my other neck bones," Livingston said.

Livingston is now suing Biomedical Tissue Services and the companies that supplied the tissue to his surgeon, hoping to force stricter safeguards and the release of his donor's records.

The donations are sterilized to kill any diseases.

"In today's world, I don't know if the gentleman died of AIDS, bone cancer," Livingston said.

Only knowing what caused the death of his unwilling donor will convince him what's now inside his body won't one day cause his own.