Man Amputates His Own Arm!

[Squeeky]

Climber amputates own arm
May 02, 2003

A CLIMBER amputated his own arm five days after becoming pinned by a boulder, and began hiking to safety before being spotted by searchers, authorities said.

Aron Ralston, 27, was in a serious condition at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Ralston was climbing last Saturday in Blue John Canyon, adjacent to Canyonlands National Park in far southwestern Utah, when a 90-kilogram boulder fell on him, pinning his right arm, authorities said.

He ran out of water on Tuesday and yesterday morning, he decided that his survival required drastic action.

Using his pocketknife, he amputated his arm below the elbow, applied a tourniquet and administered first aid.

He then rigged anchors, fixed a rope and rappelled to the canyon floor.

He hiked downstream and was spotted about 3 pm by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. The search for Ralston had begun the same morning, after authorities were notified he was four days overdue reporting for work.

Authorities described Ralston as an avid outdoorsman in exceptional physical condition. They said he was known to have climbed 49 of Colorado's major peaks


Omg!

Sourcehttp://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6371136%255E13762,00.html

[Navaron]

No doubt he is one tough mother fucker - but he should have just typed /no clipping and walked down. Maybe there wasn't an AMS nearby for a /suicide.

[Rainer]

Wow that would hurt alot :O:

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Now that takes something...

[Squeeky]

Originally posted by OmnipotentKiwi
Now that takes something...

Extreme large balls maybe?

[Khronos]

Originally posted by {BOHICA}Navaron
No doubt he is one tough mother fucker - but he should have just typed /no clipping and walked down. Maybe there wasn't an AMS nearby for a /suicide.

--

wow, i know i probably could never do something like that. But you never know what you're gonna do in a life or death situation i suppose.

[Strygun]

Extreme measures force extreme actions. Personally, I don't know if I would have the will power or inner strength to saw off my own arm. I mean, even though it probably didn't hurt him very much (his arm is being crushed by 90kgrams of rock, for 4 days), surely he realized it would be last of his arm.

Just one of those things...

[Squeeky]

He sawed his arm off with a freaking pocket knife, OF COURSE IT HURT!!!!!!!!!!!

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Originally posted by Squeeky
He sawed his arm off with a freaking pocket knife, OF COURSE IT HURT!!!!!!!!!!!

Compared to what? His arm was under the boulder for FOUR DAYS. Hell, at this point cutting off his arm might have felt like a relief.

[Unregistered]

If I'd had a pocket knofe on me that morning I woke up with a hang over with that fat bitch sleeping on my arm I'd have cut it off and ran for safety too.

[Doobz]

no, the true test of machoism is if he would cut it off with an exacto knife

[Unregistered]

naw, the true test would be if he'd done it Cyote style and chewed his arm off.

[SandTrout]

Wow, there is an impresive survialist.

[Warborn]

It's impressive, but you have to realize that for him to be completely unable to get the boulder off his arm, his arm would need to be mostly crushed in the first place. In that situation, if the rock were "pretty" heavy rather than "holy f*** get this thing off of me" heavy, you'd probably have been able to simply pull your arm out, albeit with a lot of the skin and some muscle missing from it by the time you get it out.

Anyway, long story short, I'm sure having your arm crushed underneat a rock and being on the verge of dehydration makes cutting your own arm off easier than it may seem.

[MDK]

I agree with Warborn and some of the others who've posted similar stuff... but to cut your own arm off... with a pocket knife... I guess it's just one of those things where you'd have to be there... but, as headstrong as I am, I dunno if I'd have the minerals. That's just nuts.