Trapped man cuts off leg to save himself

A Californian man has amputated a leg with pocket knives to free himself from a fallen tree that had pinned him to the ground for almost 11 hours.

Al Hill, 66, was cutting trees on a property when the tree fell on his leg. Alone in the woods, and in an area where mobile phone service is spotty or non-existent, Mr Hill was forced to take the extreme measure to save himself.

Eventually, Eric Bockey, a neighbour in the area, heard Mr Hill's cries for help. Mr Bockey had to go more than three kilometres to get a mobile signal and make an emergency call to a volunteer fire department in Iowa Hill. He and another neighbour loaded Mr Hill on to a truck and took him to an emergency landing site in town where a helicopter picked Mr Hill up and flew him to hospital.

Iowa Hill fire chief Luana Dowling said it was hard to believe that Mr Hill did not go into shock. "He's a pretty remarkable person," he said.

Source: The Age
Image: Willgame / Flickr
Tags: Cut | Leg