Man amputates his leg with knife

Hacksaw also reportedly used

SHANGHAI — A Chinese villager with no medical background reportedly amputated his leg using a fruit knife and a hacksaw after a mysterious infection took hold of one of his limbs and doctors gave him just a month to live.

Until last year, Zheng Yanliang, 47, from a village in the northern province of Hebei, was known as the local “tough guy,” the Shijiazhuang Daily newspaper reports.

But early one morning in January 2012, Zheng woke at his home to sharp pains in his stomach and legs.

Doctors puzzled over his condition and administered a painkilling injection.

Baffled by Zheng’s complaint, they packed him off on a futile traipse through China’s chronically underfunded health-care system.

In Beijing, doctors diagnosed him with a rare and apparently incurable disease that had taken hold of his lower limbs for “an unknown reason,” the newspaper claimed. They concluded Zheng would be dead within the month, handed his family a hefty medical bill and sent the now penniless farmer home to die. Three months on, Zheng was still very much alive.

But soon his condition deteriorated: Purple spots appeared on his right leg and the skin turned black. Zheng’s impoverished family had no money to pay for surgery and he was rebuffed when he implored the village doctor to amputate the limb.

It was then that a desperate Zheng decided to take his fate into his own hands. One morning he placed a wooden backscratcher between his teeth and began his home amputation. Using a fruit knife, a hacksaw and a towel to protect his bed from the blood, the job was reportedly finished within 20 minutes.

Nearly 18 months later, Zheng appears to have gone public with his horrific tale this week in an attempt to attract sympathy and charity.