Could you cut off your own... ???

Logger amputates own leg with pocket knife after being trapped under tree


A man used pocket knives to amputate his own leg in order to free himself after being pinned under a tree for almost 11 hours.

Al Hill, 66, was cutting trees when a tree fell on his leg and trapped him.

Alone in the woods, and in an area where cellular phone service is spotty or nonexistent, Hill was forced to take the extreme measure to save himself.

Eventually, Eric Bockey, a neighbour in the area, heard Hill's cries for help. "Only me, Al and God were there that day," he said.

Bookey had to go nearly two miles to get a mobile phone signal and make an emergency call, which came in to a volunteer fire department about 7:30pm, Iowa Hill Fire Chief Luana Dowling said.

He and another neighbour loaded Hill onto a truck and took him to an emergency landing site in town where a helicopter then transported Hill to hospital.

He underwent amputation surgery, Dowling said, adding it was hard to believe that Hill did not go into shock.

"He's a pretty remarkable person," Dowling said. News of Hill's ordeal has captivated this tiny town about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, where there is no electricity and few services for the roughly 200 residents.

In May 2003, a 27-year-old man from Colorado used a pocket knife to amputate his own arm below the elbow in a desperate bid to free himself after being trapped for five days under an 800-pound boulder in a national park in Utah.

 

I think most people would be surprised what they're capable of when their lives are on the line.

So, yes, I think I could amputate an arm or a leg if it meant my survival. I just don't see myself sitting there waiting to die.

Of course, I'd have to be pretty damn sure that the choice is a limb or my life. If I' just finished up cutting off my own leg and Holly Housewife and the family dog came wandering around the corner, I'd probably be pretty pissed.

 

I sure hope I would.

 

It's only a flesh wound.

 

My pocket knife sucks. I'd wait for a coyote to gnaw it off.

 

I'm surprised he could do it without passing out. No way I could do it.

 

Boy, I honestly don't know. Rick Reilly did a pretty good column on the guy who cut his own arm off after being pinned by the 800-pound boulder a few years ago, and that column seriously made me squeamish. The guy described the cracking sound made when he finally snapped his arm free from the rest of his body...yeesh.

No thank you, I'll just die.

 

Great Esquire story a few years ago about a dude who was run off the road in California and got trapped in his van. More than just a story about a man freeing himself by cutting off his arm, it delved into his family life and what made him tick, what made him able to sever his arm and crawl to help. Might have been a Junod story, but I'm not sure.

 

I debated even clicking on this thread knowing damn well I couldn't cut off anything of mine.

That being said.......the answer is still no.