Im not saying he is a hero or even courageous. He says he doesnt consider himself courageous either in the link. But how many of you out there could actually do what this guy did? I dont know that i could. I know, looking at it dispassionately a lot of you will say you could. But think hard. Not everyone would have had the intestinal fortitude needed to stay out of shock. Then to amputate your own arm, calmly walk 8 MILES to the nearest inhabited place. All this after 5 days out in the wild with little to no provisions. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/05/08/climber.amputation/index.html

There was another story some years back about a lumberjack (oops I mean woodsperson) that got his leg trapped under a log. He had to cut off his leg crawl to his truck then drive to where he could get help.

I'm not sure if I could do it or not. When I was in the Army I had a lump in the back of my neck when I went to the military doc they said it would go away. Well it didn't go away, and it really bothered me so one day I got out a razor, a seem ripper, a wash cloth, and some rubbing alcohol, plus a mirror. I cut the back of my neck open and used the seem ripper to dig out the lump, well it turned out to be a cist. It was alittle bigger then a quarter and as hard as a rock. That hurt like he!! so I can only image what cutting of an arm or leg must feel like.

Got to be really tough to do that .... amputating a limb. Don't know if I could do it or not. This is a situation that you have to be in...not something to practice for.

Cutting off my own arm...I could never have done that. Even if it were life & death.

How about slitting your throat? Does that count?

You first

Originally posted by Blibblob
How about slitting your throat? Does that count? Yeah, you would have to show me how its done so i could make an informed decision. So anytime you are ready, have at it.

Originally posted by BorgHunter
Cutting off my own arm...I could never have done that. Even if it were life & death. An even more detailed version came out today. From his own mouth. He had to actually break the bones in his arm, THEN he amputated. THEN he rappelled down a mountain with his one good arm. THEN he hiked the 6-8miles to civilization. This is one tough cookie. Talk about a survival instinct.

He said he was able to do it through the strength of his faith in god. It would take a very strong belief in god, a lot of faith to do, I guess a communist or athiest liberal would have just sat there and died, after all, they really dont believe in anything, except for how evil capitalism is, and that wont give you the intestinal fortitude and strength to cut off your arm to save your life.

Well, damn. Religion has saved one life! Only about 499,999,999 more to go!

I'm surprised that young fella can walk properly. He must have cojones the size of musk mellons.

I don't know...

Most people would probably choose life at whatever cost (from here I couldn't concieve of cutting off my arm but people do all kinds of weird shit to survive).

Yeah, folks do want to survive, but at different levels of determination. Most folks in similar situations would not come away from that alive, IMO. This young man was in remarkable physical and emotional shape to overcome the situation and come out at the other end as he has. One hope is that theres enough left of the limb to permit the eventual use of a prosthesis, should he desire one.