Hypothetical: Can a vet amputate a human limb?

[gaffa]

@Chronos

But, sadly, no more double fisting.

You know you all thought it.

Remarkably, I didn’t. But that just means that he’d have to enlist help from someone else (maybe someone he picked up in a bar, with a tale of how he lost his arm), not that he couldn’t do it.

Plus, there’s always stumping.

Ah yes, Long Jeanne Silver - the woman with an appendage bigger than both John Holmes and Ron Jeremy put together.

[TomGorstaad]

In this hypothetical case, successful amputation = the patient lives and thrives and doesn’t get an infection that kills him. Bonus points for a well-healed stump.

[Darth_Panda]

@Chronos

Plus, there’s always stumping.

and a new fetish is born…

[Spoons]

My own thanks go to toodlepip and Long Time First Time for their contributions.

I’ll add that a good friend of mine is a veterinarian. He mainly deals with large domestic animals (horses, cows, pigs), but can and has advised me about my house cats. His knowledge of mammalian anatomy and physiology across different species is amazing; at least, this is how it seems to me as a layperson. However, knowing him and hearing stories of his experiences, I have no doubt that if worst came to worst, he could amputate a human limb; though I also know that his ethics would permit him to do it only as a last resort. If there was a way to get a proper MD or EMT to attend at the scene, or to get the patient to a proper MD or ER or similar, he would not act, other than to administer the first aid that we all should know how to do.

[Indistinguishable]

@runner pat

@gaffa

Seriously! I call him “that guy who will never, ever have to buy his own drink in any bar in the world as long as he’ll live”.

And yet if he had amputated both arms, nobody would bother.

I’m not sure what you mean by this comment, but… how badass would you have to be to be able to amputate both of your arms by yourself? I mean, even on a purely mechanical level, that would be an impressive achievement.

[toodlepip]

@Spoons

I’ll add that a good friend of mine is a veterinarian. He mainly deals with large domestic animals (horses, cows, pigs), but can and has advised me about my house cats. His knowledge of mammalian anatomy and physiology across different species is amazing; at least, this is how it seems to me as a layperson. However, knowing him and hearing stories of his experiences, I have no doubt that if worst came to worst, he could amputate a human limb; though I also know that his ethics would permit him to do it only as a last resort. If there was a way to get a proper MD or EMT to attend at the scene, or to get the patient to a proper MD or ER or similar, he would not act, other than to administer the first aid that we all should know how to do.

An old colleague of mine had an interesting take on this. His concern was that as a vet, he would be capable of doing more than a lay person at the scene of an accident, and therefore would feel obliged to. Legally and ethically, this is a very grey area. He made a point of never carrying drugs or equipment in his car. Those of us who do large animal work don’t have that option. In fact, with what I normally keep in my car I could do a decent field amputation with reasonable anaesthesia and analgesia. Again, I just can’t think of a likely scenario where I would feel that was the best option.

I work in the UK, and here, animals are protected under the Veterinary Surgeons Act - it is a criminal offence for someone to practice veterinary surgery unless they are a qualified veterinary surgeon. While the same isn’t quite true for humans, I know of a case where a vet was charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act for taking radiographs of his colleague’s injured leg. Major surgical procedures would probably be frowned upon.

[Broomstick]

Here in the US, if it was an emergency, there was an immediate danger to life and limb, and no way to get a human specialist to the scene (say, an accident on a mountainside or in a wilderness area) a vet could probably do such without legal repercussions. But I’d expect said vet would seek alternatives before making a cut.

[griffin1977]

It was an oft quoted factoid in my family (that contains various vets and doctors, in the UK) that it is legal for a vet to treat a human, but not legal for doctor to treat an animal. This of course presumes some kind of emergency situation.

[DesertDog]

@williambaskerville

I work near a university campus, and the Veterinary School students there seem to be rather fond of wearing tshirts/sweatshirts proclaiming that “Real Doctors Treat More Than One Species.”

I like it!

During my Recording for the Blind days I read the Handbook for Veterinary Surgery. It was remarkably like people surgery with two exceptions: The patient is shaved after they’re out. The table under the horse they had an illustration of was really big.

[aruvqan]

Actually part of a successful amputation is also knowing where on the limb to cut, to leave enough to fit a prosthetic to [or so that further surgery can do the ‘finished’ job, in the case of a rapid field amputation]

I once saw a reconstruction of that British surgeon [Liston?] that did the demonstration of a leg amputation … it was actually fascinating. They used the ligature to restrict the flow of blood to the leg and to provide torsion on the flesh pulling it upwards on the leg. The surgeon did a fast draw around the leg cutting the muscle groups, and then used the bone saw to cut the femur. They cauterized the stump, and the flesh when the ligature was removed was pulled down and sewn over the end of the bone to make the stump. IIRC the actual time to cut the leg off and cauterize the stump was something obscene like 2 minutes :eek:

I think I could probably manage one in an absolute emergency - I have taken anatomy, understand the importance of cleanliness, and the need to cut long so a real doc can do the fine repair work. i couldn’t do any worse than a pre1900 doctor …