Amputation

Amputation is the removal, usually by surgery, of an external part of the body, most often a limb or part of it. The word amputation is derived from the Latin amputare, "to cut away."

Football played by amputees

The French general Napoleon’s private surgeon, Baron Dominique Larrey could amputate a man’s leg in 14 seconds. Despite this or possibly because of this Napoleon described him as "the most virtuous man I have ever known".

Horatio Nelson had his right arm amputated at Santa Cruz, Tenerife on board the Theseus. After his arm was removed he was left alone to recover with an opium pill and a shot of rum. Nelson was so upset by the feel of the chilly scalpel against his flesh that he demanded that all amputations performed on ships under his command be done with warm knives.

When Brigadier General Otis Howard had his right arm amputated after being wounded in battle, fellow Union Brigadier General Philip Kearny (who lost his left arm in the American-Mexican War) later remarked, "General, we will have to buy gloves together!"

The quickest leg amputation the speedy Victorian surgeon Robert Liston managed was 28 seconds. On that occasion, when the use of ether as an anesthetic was still a novelty he was operating on a butler called Frederick Churchill. When the ether was put under the butler’s nose, however, he gurgled and immediately went limp and Liston removed the leg and cauterized the wound in record time. When Churchill came round he asked “When are we going to begin”? Tragically, in achieving this feat Liston accidentally cut off two of his assistant’s fingers, who later died of gangrene poisoning.

Mexican General Santa Anna had a state funeral for his amputated leg.

Canadian athlete and amputee, Terry Fox, stricken with cancer, ran across Canada to raise awareness for Cancer research. He ran an astounding 5,373 kilometers (3,339 miles) before having to stop due to his ailments.

Terry Fox in Toronto during his Marathon of Hope cross-country run

On June 4, 1986, professional wrestler Kerry Von Erich was in a motorcycle accident that nearly ended his life. Doctors were unable to save his right foot, eventually amputating it. He continued wrestling while secretly wearing a prosthetic - even showering in his boots so no one would know. Erich's injury wasn't public knowledge until his death from suicide seven years later.

Some amputees continue to feel painful sensations from the area of the former limb, a condition called phantom-limb pain. 

Body Integrity Identity Disorder, or BIID, is a condition where a person feels an overwhelming desire to become an amputee. One of the first purported cases was recorded in a medical textbook from 1785. It told of an Englishman who held a surgeon at gunpoint until the surgeon amputated his leg.

In the US, the majority of new amputations occur due to complications of the vascular system (the blood vessels), especially from diabetes.

Approximately 185,000 amputations occur in the United States each year. 

An average of two amputations occur weekly at US meatpacking plants.

African Americans are up to four times more likely to have an amputation than European Americans.