How's this story I read on iafrica?
Man, that had to hurt!
US climber tells of severing arm with a pocketknife
A climber who freed himself from a fallen bolder by cutting off his own arm with a pocketknife had recovered enough to tell the tale on Thursday.
"I did what I had to do," he told a host of reporters who had converged on Mount St. Mary's Hospital where he was recovering in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Aron Ralston (27) is used to adventure and risks. He dealt calmly with the consequences.
He applied a tourniquet, cut off his lower arm, rappelled down a 20-metre cliff and hiked six miles through a national park in the Western state of Utah.
"I'm not sure how I handled it. I felt pain. I coped with it. I moved on."
Ralston was hiking on April 26 when the 450kg boulder trapped his arm. He waited for three days, until his food and water were gone, before deciding that the arm would have to go.
"I began laying plans... and the next five days until I was rescued... I spent going through each option."
Ralston had tried everything else. He had slung his rope over the boulder and tried to lift it. He chipped at the rock with his knife.
That made the blade hopelessly dull by the time he decided to amputate his arm.
It eventually cut through the flesh, but not the bones.
He had to twist his arm again and again until the bones snapped off. He was free for the first time in five days.
With a makeshift bandage and tourniquet, he still had to crawl along a 45-metre canyon. And then he rappelled, one-armed, down the rock face. After hiking for hours, he met a Dutch family who went for medical attention.
A week later, the mechanical engineer was alive to tell the tale.
He said he can't wait to get out into the wild again.
Man, that had to hurt!
US climber tells of severing arm with a pocketknife
A climber who freed himself from a fallen bolder by cutting off his own arm with a pocketknife had recovered enough to tell the tale on Thursday.
"I did what I had to do," he told a host of reporters who had converged on Mount St. Mary's Hospital where he was recovering in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Aron Ralston (27) is used to adventure and risks. He dealt calmly with the consequences.
He applied a tourniquet, cut off his lower arm, rappelled down a 20-metre cliff and hiked six miles through a national park in the Western state of Utah.
"I'm not sure how I handled it. I felt pain. I coped with it. I moved on."
Ralston was hiking on April 26 when the 450kg boulder trapped his arm. He waited for three days, until his food and water were gone, before deciding that the arm would have to go.
"I began laying plans... and the next five days until I was rescued... I spent going through each option."
Ralston had tried everything else. He had slung his rope over the boulder and tried to lift it. He chipped at the rock with his knife.
That made the blade hopelessly dull by the time he decided to amputate his arm.
It eventually cut through the flesh, but not the bones.
He had to twist his arm again and again until the bones snapped off. He was free for the first time in five days.
With a makeshift bandage and tourniquet, he still had to crawl along a 45-metre canyon. And then he rappelled, one-armed, down the rock face. After hiking for hours, he met a Dutch family who went for medical attention.
A week later, the mechanical engineer was alive to tell the tale.
He said he can't wait to get out into the wild again.
