# Off with her arm! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 23, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250 "2005-01-23T15:55:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/1 "2005-01-23T15:55:25Z")
I’m writing a story, and I’ve decided one of my characters has to lose an arm. The subsequent events are important to her development, but the injury itself isn’t. I haven’t decided **how** she loses it. So here I am, fishing for ideas. Any suggestions? It’s a futuristic setting. The character is an officer in the military. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/2 "2005-01-23T16:00:42Z")
A horrible horrible run-in with a nano-material loom. OSHA is currently investigating. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/3 "2005-01-23T16:07:55Z")
I just wrote a story with a similar premise. My soldier lost his arm fighting in a war. Seems the logical thing, if she’s military. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/4 "2005-01-23T17:18:13Z")
> [@Earthworm Jim](#): > > …So here I am, fishing for ideas. Any suggestions?.. Perhaps a tragic fishing accident? 😃 Mauled by a manatee? Severed by a squid? Whalloped by a whale? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/5 "2005-01-23T17:45:30Z")
She had a run-in with a high-tension cable that snapped or came unmoored, or with an invisible jet of steam escaping a pipe through a tiny hole, under tremendous pressure. Or, she had been in a cargo containment area when a pallet(s)'s worth of stuff suddenly shifted, pinning her by the arm and crushing it… ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/6 "2005-01-23T17:47:42Z")
Her boyfriend helps her stage an “accident” in the garage, and she gets fitted with TWIN BODY-POWERED DORRANCE #5 STAINLESS STEEL HOOKS!!! ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/7 "2005-01-23T17:48:35Z")
In the truth is stranger than fiction department: She got it wedged in a rock climbing accident and had to CUT IT OFF HERSELF! With a dull spork. okay, maybe not a spork, but the real guy used a leatherman. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/8 "2005-01-23T17:51:42Z")
She lost it in an training accident with a grenade when she was a boot instructor, knocking the dumbass trainee that dropped it out of the way. That trainee could now be important in some way, and owes a debt of gratitude. She was in a car accident caused by a drunken Senator or other powerful politico and she stayed in the service due to his or her influence and now has a powerful piece of blackmail over them, because it never went public. She lost the arm in a simple mission gone horribly awry, and her best friend died in front of her eyes as she lay there helpless (due to the injury.) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/9 "2005-01-23T17:54:07Z")
Ooh! Ooh! This is what happens when you reverse the polarity of the generator on the port compression bay valve! _Thwack_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/10 "2005-01-23T18:17:40Z")
She moved a major piece of equipment in zero G with a push, & then foolishly tried to stop it with a shove. In a gravity well like Earth’s, it would have _weighed_ 5 tons. In Earth orbit, it still _massed_ 5 tons. Crushed the arm, amputation was needed, as were TWIN BODY-POWERED DORRANCE #5 STAINLESS STEEL HOOKS!!! ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/11 "2005-01-23T18:21:03Z")
It’s an ugly planet, a bug planet, a planet hostile to life as we know it! AAAAIIEEE!!! ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/12 "2005-01-23T18:52:00Z")
Crush injury. She fell from a moving heavy military carrier during the victory parade through the liberated ruins of Washington and it ran over her arm. But that didn’t stop her bringing down the sniper aiming at the President from a passing hoverplane. Got kicked upstairs afterwards to drive a desk with the rest of the damn pen-pushers, but she can still handle a laser cannon like the best of them. She’s kind of bitter about it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/13 "2005-01-23T19:35:13Z")
[Necrotizing Fascitis (AKA Flesh-eating bacteria)?](http://my.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/hw140408.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/14 "2005-01-23T19:37:35Z")
Misuse of an army-issue can opener. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/15 "2005-01-23T19:52:12Z")
How about she slipped while walking along the road during a blizzard, fell into the road, and got her arm ripped off by one of those big ass rotary snow-plows. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/16 "2005-01-23T20:04:45Z")
Thanks for bringing back a not pleasant scene I saw at a lake many years ago. A gal was run over by a boat and the propeller did a good job of chewing up her left arm. Everything from just above the elbow down was chopped up pretty good. Then to make matters worse, some buffoon decided he should beat the crap out of the guy that was driving the boat even though the accident wasn’t his fault. The gal jumped off the back of a different boat right into his path. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/17 "2005-01-23T20:07:09Z")
Mimicking the loss of a friend of mine: the sleeve of her uniform gets caught in the mechanics of a large motorized security gate (of the size necessary for the passage of Humvees and other large vehicles) and the arm is crushed severely above the elbow, requiring disarticulation (aka amputation) at the shoulder in order to avoid blood loss or infection which would be incompatible with the continuation of life. (That’s the cold, clinical language used in the paperwork for the lawsuit my friend filed.) ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/18 "2005-01-23T20:24:31Z")
She offered to lend a hand to precisely the wrong person. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/19 "2005-01-23T20:56:10Z")
Running out of veins and using the brachial artery to inject illicit drugs, and infarcting the arm. (Yes, it’s one of my real-life patients). ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250/20 "2005-01-24T02:21:53Z")
She voulintarily gave up her arm so the tissue could be recycled to save the lives of several young soldiers under her command with otherwise fatal wounds. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-with-her-arm/286250.md?page=2)