Well, this will almost certainly be one of the most simultaneously harrowing and impressive things you will come across all day. If not, then congratulations, for you lead an infinitely more exciting life than could be considered wise.
Let’s lay out the land for what we’re dealing with here, a young woman from Cork performed a DIY amputation on her own finger last Friday. Those are the facts. She performed this procedure without anesthetic. This was also not the first time she had attempted to remove her finger. She first came to media prominence in August 2015 when she unsuccessfully attempted to remove her finger with an axe. I think it’s better for all of our collective sanities if we try our best to not imagine the immediate aftermath of a situation where someone ‘fails to remove their own finger with an axe’ looks like.
Megan Cullen, 25, took the decision to remove her own index finger on her right hand after suffering for years with a chronic pain disorder called Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome. She developed the condition after catching her finger in a car door some seven years ago when she was 18.
She had undergone two surgeries to try and ameliorate her condition, and has been prescribed various high-strength painkillers over the years to try help her live with the condition. However, the painkillers always proved insufficient, and despite being prescribed stronger and stronger dosages, even being given morphine patches, the pain persisted.
It was evident to her that traditional methods to treat the pain were not working and, having been denied a request for an amputation in Ireland, and having decided against trying to apply for one in the UK due to financial reasons, she took the decision to amputate the digit herself.
She took the decision last Friday and, after applying anti-septic to the area she cut off the finger using a method she refused to reveal. She then astonishingly describes, to the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM, how she threw the finger in the bin so as to prevent it from being surgically reattached. Her mother then proceeded to call an ambulance and, after a 45 minute wait, it arrived to take her to Cork University Hospital, where she was kept in for the weekend and prescribed a dose of antibiotics. Since removing her finger she has described herself as being pain-free.
Lovely stuff.
H/T: The Irish Times
