10 extreme situations in which a limb had to be amputated independently in order to survive

In the event that we are talking about life and death, most living beings are ready to sacrifice a lot in the name of salvation. People are no exception and there are many cases when in extreme situations, a person with no other way out, deprived himself of an arm or leg. (Careful! The information presented in this material may seem unpleasant or shocking).

We have selected ten of the most incredible cases when a person had to amputate a part of his body on his own in order to survive. It is worth noting that such "initiatives" do not always end well — the chance of dying from blood loss, infection or pain shock is quite high. But when you have to choose between a certain painful death and vague prospects of dying from the consequences, it is still preferable to act.

Mountaineer Aron Ralston is a person for whom mountains have turned from a hobby into a main profession. After leaving a promising job as an Intel mechanical engineer, Aron devoted himself to exploring the mountainous regions of the USA and by the age of 27 was considered one of the most experienced climbers in Colorado.

But even high professionalism did not save Ralston from trouble — traveling in April 2003 along the Blue John Canyon in Utah, he was crushed by a multi-ton stone block that blocked his hand. At first, Aron did not understand how serious his situation was — after taking a picture for memory, he decided to wait for rescuers.

But help was in no hurry to come — mobile communication in the canyon did not work, and the place where the guy got into trouble was away from popular tourist routes. Five days later, when the small supplies of water and food ran out, Aron realized that he would die if he did not get free and made the difficult decision to cut off his arm to the elbow.

Of the tools Ralston had only a small folding knife, with which he cut the muscles and tendons of his right arm. After that, he managed to break a bone and completely free himself. Somehow wrapping the wound with clothes, Aron went to look for help and soon he was spotted from a helicopter and rescued. 

Despite the terrible case, the man did not even think to give up his occupation — he continues to climb the mountains with a prosthesis. In 2004, Aron published the book "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", and in 2010 the film "127 Hours" was directed by Danny Boyle.

The case that happened to the American Michael Lasiter in 2008 is hardly an example of heroism, and amputation in this case was not completed. However, as an example of human stupidity and the consequences of taking drugs, it deserves attention.

Lasiter was injecting himself intravenously with a drug in a California motel room and it seemed to him that air got into his vein along with the liquid. The man knew that it was deadly, and Michael decided to save his life in the only right way, in his opinion, to amputate his arm.

Panic, aggravated by the effect of a narcotic substance, forced Lasiter to run out of the room and break into the nearby fast food restaurant "Denny's". In the hall of the institution, a man grabbed a butter knife and, in front of the staff and visitors, began to separate their limb with wild screams. Since the actions were not successful, the addict moved to the restaurant kitchen and continued what he had started with a large chef's knife. The police officers who arrived at the scene interrupted Lesiter's occupation, using a stun gun and, having twisted, were taken to the nearest hospital. The hand was eventually saved, although it will no longer be as new.

American Jonathan Metz almost died right at home, and only determination and the help that happened to come in time saved his life. One evening in June 2010, Metz decided to cook pizza for dinner. While the food was cooking, he went down to the basement for a couple of minutes to fix the oven.

Jonathan put his hand into the bowels of the device, but could not extract it. As a result, the man had to spend three long days next to the stove, until despair prompted him to amputate his stuck arm. As Metz told later, he asked himself the question — what would the main character of the popular US TV series "MacGyver" do in his place. The answer was obvious, and Jonathan began sawing his hand with a hacksaw, which by a happy coincidence he had with him.

Already at the end of the work Metz lost consciousness and probably would have died of blood loss, but he was accidentally discovered by an acquaintance. The police, who were called by Jonathan's guest, took the victim to the hospital, where doctors finished the operation they started on their own. According to doctors, if the guy had not cut the dead tissue on his own, he would hardly have had a chance to survive.

61-year-old forester from Colorado John Hutt was at work in the sparsely populated western part of the state. Equipment weighing 6 tons fell from his trailer, which tightly clamped the man's foot. Mobile communication in the forest did not work, and the chance that people would appear in the near future and come to the rescue was very low.

So the Hutt took out his pocket knife and cut off the toes that were pinned by the weight. After that, the man had to walk several kilometers to get to civilization and get qualified help. In the end, it didn't end so badly — after a month, John started walking on his own and soon after that he began to gradually get involved in the work of a lumberjack again.

As you have already noticed, often the cause of terrible injuries becomes routine, regularly performed work. It was due to the performance of routine homework that 69-year-old Vietnam veteran Miron Schlafman was left without a left hand. Having passed through the hell of the burning jungle without significant losses, this courageous old man almost died in captivity of his own electric meat grinder, in which he made minced meat hundreds of times.

While cooking homemade sausage, Schlafman began to take the meat out of the working chamber of the device, but accidentally pressed the "Start" pedal with his foot. A powerful semi-industrial machine instantly pulled the man's hand into the shredding mechanism, disfiguring it and firmly clamping the parts of the mechanism.

Miron, who had seen a lot of injuries in the war, immediately realized that if he hesitated, he would simply bleed out and die. Therefore, the veteran decided to act quickly and radically. With the help of a knife lying nearby, Schlafman managed to separate the limb in a few minutes, after which he called 911.

In 2007, a 69-year-old professional logger Al Hill from California made a mistake at work and immediately paid for it. Due to an incorrectly calculated trajectory, the sawn tree fell not as planned and crushed the man. Al had no chance to get free — the multi-ton trunk literally dented his foot into the ground, and all the working tools were too far away.

After spending 11 agonizing hours and realizing that he could not wait for help, Hill decided to cut off his leg below the knee. He had only a pocket knife at his disposal, but there was no hurry and the elderly lumberjack, despite everything, coped with the work. Having gained his freedom, Al was able to get out into a relatively open place and began to call for help. A neighbor passing by heard the screams and called the police, who took Hill to the hospital.

Zheng Yanliang, a resident of China, had worked in production all his life and, having collected a small amount, planned to take up farming. But on the way to the dream, a man was waiting for a serious problem — he was diagnosed with arterial thrombosis. Zheng diligently attended all the procedures and purchased the necessary medicines, however, despite this, the doctors gave him a choice — amputation of his leg or an early death.

The cost of the operation was 48 thousand dollars, and Yanliang's budget was already leaking due to a long unsuccessful treatment. Therefore, doctors discharged the farmer from the hospital, releasing him only 3 months of life. The condition of the limb worsened every day and gangrene soon began. Unwilling to give up, Zheng decided to amputate himself and thus escape.

On April 14, 2012, the man decided to have surgery. He bit a piece of wood with his teeth and began the operation without anesthesia, using a fruit knife and a hacksaw as surgical instruments. Later, Zheng said that he was busy sawing the bone for at least 20 minutes and it was the longest minutes in his life. As a result of the operation, the courageous Chinese man lost not only his leg, but also his front teeth, which he broke while clutching a wooden gag.

Our next hero became one of the many victims of the earthquake that occurred in Indonesia in September 2009. 18-year-old Ramlan and his acquaintance, 53-year-old Eman, worked at one of the construction sites in the city of Padang, which suffered the most from the elements. Of the entire brigade, only Ramlan was unlucky, whose leg was clamped by a collapsed concrete beam.

Fearing that the next tremors would bury him under the building structures, Ramlan began chopping his leg with a hoe that happened to be nearby. But the tool turned out to be of little use for such an operation and the young man was forced to rely on his mobile phone. After several attempts, Ramlan was able to get through to his partner Eman, who brought him a hacksaw to continue amputation.

By the time the tool was in the hands of the young man, he could no longer work with it and it was up to Eman himself to saw the limb. After freeing his comrade, he hastily bandaged the wound and took the wounded man to the hospital. Doctors had to perform another operation, but Ramlan was saved.

A resident of Maine, Douglas Goodale has been fishing for lobsters in the Atlantic all his life. Often a man had to go out into the ocean to fish alone. In 2002, the fisherman made the last single exit for the catch, which almost cost him his life.

During the trawling, a storm began and Doug, in a hurry to save the gear, found himself in the area of the winch. A powerful mechanism pulled the fisherman's hand into the block, and a gust of stormy wind threw Goodale, clamped by a winch, overboard. The man said that hanging over the water and bleeding, he thought only about how his family would live without his father.

With incredible efforts, Doug managed to return to the deck of his small vessel, but his shattered arm still remained at the mercy of the mechanism. The storm continued and the chance to go down on an unguided boat was increasing by the minute. In order not to deprive his family of the only breadwinner, the man decided to sacrifice his hand. Doug did amputation with a small fishing knife in very difficult conditions - swinging along with the deck and plunging from time to time into the waves rolling over the low side.

After completing the operation, the lobster catcher was able to bring his vessel to the harbor, where he, bleeding, managed to be helped. After this incident, Doug did not quit his job, but now he needs an assistant on board. The role of a partner is now played by Becky's wife, who quickly mastered all the wisdom of the craft.

The rescue of Sampson Parker, a farmer from South Carolina, is nothing short of miraculous. The man was threatened with several deadly dangers at once, which, although with serious losses, he managed to avoid. One summer day in 2007, a farmer was working on a mechanized picker. Having decided to fix a small problem, Sampson put his hand into the bowels of the working machine, as he had done more than once before.

But that day something went wrong and the mechanism clamped the man's hand. In addition, the device blocked by a foreign object caught fire from overload. Parker had to guess what would kill him first— pain shock, blood loss or fire. But the man decided not to give up and at all costs to get out of the fight with the car the winner.

Sampson had only a tiny penknife with an 8 cm blade at his disposal, but it was with it that the farmer managed to cut off his hand. At the end of the operation, Parker began to lose consciousness from pain and fever, which meant certain death in his case. But then an accident intervened — the smoke from the burning combine was seen by the farmer's neighbor, firefighter Doug Spinks. An experienced guy in such matters dragged Parker away from the flaming equipment, called 911 and, while rescuers were on the way, provided first aid.