Farmer unable to afford surgery amputates his own feet

A 44 year old farmer from Anhui Province was unable to withstand the tortuous pain of severe necrosis in his feet, so he amputated them himself. 

Liu Dunhe told the Beijing News how he watched incredulously as several apparently normal blisters on his feet developed necrosis (the "the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of the blood supply") and rotted before his eyes. 

Unable to afford an opreation, Liu decided to take matters into his own hands, and used the shards of a broken teacup to saw off both his feet, using alcohol as an anaesthetic. The whole process took six hours. 

"The doctor said an amputation would cost about 10,000 yuan ($1,600)," Liu told the paper. "Where would I get that kind of money? I couldn’t afford it even if it was 1,000 yuan. So I decided to saw them off."

[Image via Beijing News]