I cut off my own finger... to end years of pain
Megan, 25, in DIY amputation shock
WHEN IT COMES TO SPORT WE’RE IN A LEAGUE OF OUR OWN
A WOMAN who chopped off her finger and threw it in the bin said she has no regrets.
Megan Cullen, 25, had been suffering extreme pain in her right index since she caught it in a car door when she was 18.
Doctors said she had Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, which means she endured unrelenting agony.
With painkillers and two operations giving her no relief, she believed she had no option but to perform the DIY amputation.
Megan, from Bantry, Co Cork, said: “Everything made it worse. If I banged it off anything that would be me done for the day, I’d be crying, have to take more medication, the day was over.
“I got counselling, I went to see surgeons, I was told I had CRPS and they performed two operations on me.
“CRPS is basically, a surgeon best described it as, your nerves are drunk and they don’t know where to go so they cause pain.
“I was on morphine tablets, patches, sleeping tablets, anti-depressants everything you could think of, I was on it.” After years of pain and one previous failed amputation attempt with an axe, last week Megan decided to try again. Speaking on Red FM’S Neil Prendeville Show she said: “On Friday I had enough, I planned it for a week. I’m not saying exactly how I did it because I don’t want people doing what I did. “So I took it off. I asked my mam to ring an ambulance, I threw my finger away so they couldn’t find it and try put it back on. “They said they don’t know how I got such a clean cut.
“The ambulance was coming from Castletownbere so we had to wait about 45 minutes, I sat there and I had a fag,
“My mam was like ‘Oh my God are you OK?’ I said ‘I have no pain’. We just sat there and had a chat.
“Well, obviously I have a bit because I chopped off my own finger so It’s not painless. It’s a new pain, but a manageable pain.” Megan’s hand