There have been several news stories concerning people who have been trapped in by large boulders or parts of their car and had to slowly cut through their limb with a pocket knife, shard of glass or other sharp thing that just happens to be laying around.
Sawing through one's own limb for survival is a skill that I think few people possess. What the everyman needs is a portable guillotine type of device to make the cut cleanly and quickly. While I don’t think I could slowly cut through my limb with a pocketknife, I do think I could do it in one swell foop, so to speak.
The device should be compact and light enough to carry in a backpack. I imagine an assemble able device with a band to hold the limb in place and a razor sharp cutting device with a leveraged actuator allowing you to make a small movemant and have the blade go cleanly through the affected limb. Ideally the DIYAK would include one shot of your favorite anaesthetic (thank you [po]) and a one-handed tourniquet (thank you [DrCurry]).
I guess you could also just carry a flare gun or a cell phone... But where's the fun in that?-- ato_de, May 02 2003 this idea may have taken off, if [ato]'s idea had been around http://www.halfbake...20wedding_20fingers [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Well, duh http://www.psara.co...sletter03_21_03.htm[Scroll down on right, under heading "Darwin Award Nominee."] [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] (??) Much more importantly http://www.armymedi...2-11/tourniquet.htm...the one-handed tourniquet, now saving lives in Iraq, and very handy if you ever need to cut off your arm without medical assistance. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] climber pinned http://www.cbsnews....al/main551979.shtml [ato_de, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] fisherman trapped http://www.gospelco.../odb-01-12-95.shtml [ato_de, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Link for [BaconBrain] http://www.answers....opic/apotemnophiliasome people like to cut off their own body parts. [Freefall, Aug 02 2005] Kiwi Sandals http://www.kiwisandals.com/lee.htmI bought some sandals (style #41) from this guy (when he still had two arms). They are very good sandals. [hippo, Nov 17 2010] Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes http://en.wikipedia...iki/Ranulph_FiennesAmputation the British way!(see the 'Adventurer' section) [DrBob, Nov 17 2010] Or just carry a pocket knife.-- DrCurry, May 02 2003 I would just hire one. for goodness sake how often would you use it?-- po, May 02 2003 I saw a 50 year old patent on this recently. Actually, it was a magic finger guillotine. You put a cigarette in it, and it chops it off cleanly. Then you put your finger in and, well, that was the magic part...-- pluterday, May 02 2003 I have been unsuccessfully trying to find the story of the man who chopped off a finger under a guillotine at work and when the manager asked him how he had done it, he demonstrated by cutting off another.-- po, May 02 2003 po: three times at most, I would say. [In answer to your first question.] See link. [In answer to your second.]-- DrCurry, May 02 2003 Ugh. How about a portable set of jacks to lift the boulder off your arm? It'd get used just as often.-- mayan, May 02 2003 An excuse to link to the news story, methinks...-- waugsqueke, May 02 2003 [waugs] as I read the news story, I thought I would not be able to do what the climber did. Then I asked myself; "Self," (that's what I call me) "What would you do?" I thought I could handle it if I did it all at once instead of in pocketknife increments, so the DIYAK was born in my addled mind. I linked to the news story because without that, this is just one sick puppy of an idea.
[snarf] this is marketed toward those who will be away from civilization and medical assistance, climbing, hiking, spelunking or shopping at Wall Mart.-- ato_de, May 02 2003 you could have mentioned anaesthetic or booze for goodness sake. anyway a + from me because it *is* an original idea.
thank you Curry. Duh? hey you have been doing this 50 years longer than me <g>-- po, May 02 2003 Honest! If you'd kept looking at this page, you'd have seen that originally I posted the link as "Well, duh." Then after my "See link" post, I though it migh not be obvious that that was the link I was talking about, so I added " - for po" without thinking about any possible negative connotations. You know I love you, sweetie.-- DrCurry, May 02 2003 The kit should be available in left-hand and right-hand versions.-- DrBob, Jun 02 2003 Ambidextrous would be better, it wouldn't matter which hand you trapped.-- OnionBread, Jun 02 2003 There should also be versions than can be operated by foot, in case both arms are trapped.-- DrBob, Jun 02 2003 or the mouth which would bring the possible self-usage up to 4.-- po, Jun 02 2003 //or the mouth which would bring the possible self-usage up to 4.//
<*Evil*>If you were a bloke, I reckon you could bring that up to five </*Evil*>-- froglet, Jul 30 2005 [froglet] Ow!
Not that this portable guillotine isn't a good idea, but wouldn't it be safer if, before going out into the woods, you went to a nice, clean hospital and had everything amputated?-- baconbrain, Jul 31 2005 [baconbrain] - I doubt the doctors would do that. There is a psychological disorder where you get some kind of weird sexual high from having a limb removed - I'm trying to find a link, but then again, I'm not sure if I actually want to google it...-- froglet, Jul 31 2005 "This is a tricky one, inspector. There appears to be a man's head wedged between those two boulders up there, and as you can see there's a bizarre metal device next to this body here..."-- Basepair, Jul 31 2005 HA Ha! I'll guarandamntee you there's a writer who's devised a take on that [Basepair].-- reensure, Aug 01 2005 Baked: Boltcutters.-- Noexit, Aug 01 2005 [Baconbrain]: see link.-- Freefall, Aug 02 2005 Um, thanks for the link, I guess.-- baconbrain, Aug 05 2005 eww. just ewww.-- moPuddin, Aug 05 2005 //wouldn't it be safer if, before going out into the woods, you went to a nice, clean hospital and had everything amputated?//
I assume you haven't heard the *other* version of that classic song 'The Teddy Bears Picnic'?-- froglet, Aug 05 2005 The word "cheesewire" springs to mind.
In terms of compactude, the ideal would be a sort of cheesewire noose with a battery-operated heavily-geared winch to tighten it. It might splinter the bone a little, but a nailfile could resolve that problem once you're free and at leisure.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 17 2010 random, halfbakery