Who can cut off his own arm?

:o

Colorado Climber Amputates His Arm

MOAB, Utah - A Colorado climber amputated his own arm Thursday, five days after becoming pinned by a boulder, and he was hiking to safety when he was spotted by searchers, authorities said.

 

Aron Ralston, 27, of Aspen, was in serious condition late Thursday at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo.


Ralston was climbing Saturday in Blue John Canyon, adjacent to Canyonlands National Park in far southwestern Utah, when a 200-pound boulder fell on him, pinning his right arm, authorities said.


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


Using his pocketknife, he amputated his arm below the elbow and 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 p.m. 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.


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


He gets the Balls of Steel Award for the Decade.  Dang!

http://www.iloura.com.au/work/Kraft_ants/balls0004.jpg

Umm...Ouch!  A pocketknife? Wow that had to hurt.  I don't even know if I would have had the guts to cut off my own arm, even if it was the only way to survive.

I would probably just have to die. I don't know if I could do it.

 Two problems solved, actually.  After amputating your arm, you could roast it over an open fire (provided you can make one) and ouila!  Din-dins!

An addendum


ARON RALSTON, 27, of Aspen, Colo., was in serious condition Friday at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., following the ordeal Thursday.
      Ralston was climbing Saturday in Blue John Canyon, adjacent to Canyonlands National Park in far southwestern Utah, when a 1,000-pound boulder fell on him, pinning his right arm, authorities said.
      Initial reports said the boulder might have weighed 200 pounds, but rescuers who later went to the site said it weighed closer to 1,000 pounds.


‘HE IS A WARRIOR’
      Ralson walked into the emergency room on his own.
      “I’ve never seen anybody who has the will to live and is as much of a warrior as Aron is, and I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” said park ranger Steve Swanke, who was with Ralston in the emergency room. “He is a warrior period.”
      Ralston’s expeditions have been known to trigger awe, said Brion After, manager of the Ute Mountaineering store in Aspen where Ralston works. After said Ralston has climbed 49 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot-plus mountains.
      “To be honest, sometimes we get pretty scared with some of the things he’s doing,” After said.

and people told me i was crazy for thinking that a pocket knife could cut off your arm!

This has been all over the news here.  He does deserve the balls of steel award.  It is truly amazing what people can do when in a situation like that.

Animals caught in traps sometimes bite their own limbs off. I guess this was the same survival mechanism. Incredible.

An extra sumpin' sumpin'

The survival instinct is strong with this one.  I hope he'll be able to climb again someday.

Unfortunately, he won't be able to get his original arm back...but I'm sure he'll be more than capable of doing his outdoorsy activities once more :)

Climber gets surgery

They found the dude's arm.  Unfortunately they're still going to have to fit him for a prosthetic...after a few days the arm's basically dead anyway :-/

Ow! No anesthetic!

This doesn't rate the same as the climber but he certainly had a great desire to go out memorably.

Man saws off his head in KZN supermarket

May 06 2003 at 04:24PM


A 31-year-old man sawed his head off in full view of staff and customers at a supermarket in Richards Bay, northern KwaZulu-Natal, on Monday afternoon, police said.

Superintendent Jay Naiker said Emmanuel Gumbi walked into the butchery section of Shoprite branch, switched on an electric meat saw, positioned his neck near the blade and sawed off his head.

He said Gumbi did not leave a suicide note.

Naiker said Gumbi's family said they had been shocked by the incident because he never showed signs of depression.

Ewwwww. How morbid can you get?

This is kinda gross...just a warning.

A description of the ordeal

Hopelessly pinned by a boulder that rolled onto his arm in a remote canyon, adventurer Aron Ralston says he first took a dull pocketknife to his forearm after three days, but couldn't cut the skin.

In his first meeting with reporters since he walked, bloody and dehydrated, out of a remote Utah canyon, Ralston described Thursday what it took for him to eventually do the unthinkable _ cutting off his own arm to save his life.

``I'm not sure how I handled it,'' the mechanical engineer-turned-adventurer said, the stump of his right arm in a sling. ``I felt pain and I coped with it. I moved on.''

A day after his first attempt to cut his arm, Ralston went through the motions of applying a tourniquet, laying out bike shorts to use for padding. He worked out how to get through the bone with the ``multi-tool''-type knife he carried.

``Basically, I got my surgical table ready,'' the 27-year-old said.

On the fifth day, he summoned up all his technique and nerve.

``I was able to first snap the radius and then within another few minutes snap the ulna at the wrist and from there, I had the knife out and applied the tourniquet and went to task. It was a process that took about an hour,'' he said.

Slim and pale with short reddish-brown hair, Ralston made frequent references to prayer and spirituality in his news conference. He said he felt a surge of energy on the third day, which happened to be the National Day of Prayer.

``I may never fully understand the spiritual aspects of what I experienced, but I will try,'' he said. ``The source of the power I felt was the thoughts and prayers of many people, most of whom I will never know.''

Ralston's ordeal began April 26, during what was supposed to be a day trip near Canyonlands National Park, Ralston, 27, became hopelessly pinned as he scrambled over three boulders wedged into a narrow canyon. One of the boulders, weighing an estimated 800 pounds, rolled as he climbed over it, trapping his right arm against a cliff face.

He tried chipping away with his knife at the boulder and the cliff, and tried to rig a way to lift the boulder off himself with climbing gear. He decided to sacrifice his arm to save his life after going through most of his three liters of water and his food _ two burritos and some crumbs clinging to candy bar wrappers.

Even after his excruciating operation, what Ralston had to do to survive required skills beyond the abilities of most.

On May 1, he crawled through a narrow, winding canyon, rappelled down a 60-foot cliff and walked some six miles down the southeastern Utah canyon.

By the time he encountered hikers and then rescuers, Ralston was just two miles from the nearest road.

For reasons he wouldn't explain, Ralston withheld some details of his story. A publicist told reporters there would be no follow-up interviews soon and no interviews whatsoever with the doctors who treated him.

Ralston gave a partial answer to one frequently asked question: What kind of knife did he use?

He described it as a cheap imitation of the Leatherman brand multi-tool, a folding device that typically has knife blades, pliers, screwdrivers and other gadgets. He didn't give the brand, calling it ``what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool.''

Statement of Aron Ralston - May 8, 2003

Thank You’s are in order. When my parents spoke to you earlier they identified a number of individuals, agencies and organizations whose efforts we appreciate. We are once again making that list available. I want to add my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of these especially to the hundreds of well trained, search and rescue volunteers who were mobilized and ready to help. Several units were in the field, others were ready to come if needed, including Albuquerque Mountain Rescue where I was once a member and Mountain Rescue Aspen where I am a prospective member. Both groups are having fund raisers this weekend. I hope folks will support it. You see, search and rescue workers give their time to save lives and they also give their time to raise money to pay for their training and equipment.
I also want to thank everyone at St. Mary’s Hospital. The stated goal of this hospital is to care for the whole person. They achieve that goal and more. The professional medical services are outstanding but it’s the loving care and concern they show for each patient that sets them apart. The people of western Colorado and eastern Utah are fortunate to have this wonderful resource. As always, it’s the people who make the difference.
I also want to extend special thanks to Paul Poister of Policy Communications. Paul is a public relations professional who has generously given his time this week to coordinate our family contacts with the news media. My family and I can’t imagine how we would have made it through this week without him.
And now the most important thank you of all. To the thousands, perhaps millions, of people who have kept me in their thoughts and prayers, I extend my deepest and most sincere gratitude. Last Thursday, which was the National Day of Prayer, will always have special meaning for me. During the final two days of my entrapment I felt an increasing surge of energy even though I had run out of food and water. It was the combined energy of all the concern expressed by so many that helped me through. The spiritual side of my life has always been a strong component of who I am. I may never fully understand the spiritual aspects what I experienced but I will try. The source of the power I felt was the thoughts and prayers of many people, most of whom I will never know.
I am still learning from my experience. We all know that a person going into the outdoors should leave detailed information regarding his or her plans and estimated return time. This is something I almost always do, but I failed to do this time. Just as forgetting to fasten a seat belt can have serious consequences, my oversight resulted in a great deal of anxiety and tremendous effort by many people. It also meant that I endured an extra 3 or 4 days of entrapment and discomfort.
However, one thing was not a consequence. The loss of my arm was not a consequence of my failure to leave detailed trip information or of failure to travel with a group. I could have been exploring that canyon with a search and rescue team and my right arm would be the same today. Once that boulder came to rest, there was no way I would be released in time to save my hand and arm. I discussed this with my surgeon and he reiterated that due to the immediate soft tissue damage and loss of circulation the hand and arm would have been unrecoverable.
I had plenty of time for solitary reflection and meditation last week. As I reflected on my life to this point, I realized that I have no regrets. I also realized that there is so much more I want to accomplish, more relationships to grow and friendships to strengthen. Of course I’m also looking forward to getting back into these wonderful mountains and canyons of the Rocky Mountain West.
I feel blessed to live in a nation that offers all of us so many choices and opportunities. The American Dream is often referred to in material terms. I realize that successful entrepreneurs are most often seen as living the American Dream. However, I think that the American Dream is also personified by dedicated parents who support their children, people working below their education in pursuit of their lifestyles, talented artists who may have never sold a painting, and even obscure mountain climbers. My American Dream is that each of us pursues our passions for life to the fullest and asks ourselves each day, “Am I singing the song I came to sing?”

The family has established a mailing address for future use – Aron Ralston, P.O. Box 3167, Englewood, CO 80155

I could never cut off my arm like that, even if my life did depend on it. At least I don't hike in dangerous places like that.

Off the subject a litttle, I heard a long time ago that a disc jockey strangled himself on the air during the song "Slowly As I Die".  How morbid is that?! ::)