# What do they do with amputated limbs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479 "2013-12-04T15:45:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/21 "2013-12-05T16:12:38Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > I was surprised that he had gone to so much trouble and I jokingly replied that it would make a good show and tell for our Cub Scout den. He reacted with great concern and said no, that would not be a good idea to pass it around to children. The liquid preservative is almost certainly formalin, which is stinky stuff and is believed to pose some carcinogenic risk, which is why pathology labs have concerns about releasing tissue that’s been soaking in it (the tissue could of course be rinsed to remove most formalin, and you could then preserve it at home in a bottle of tequila or something. 🆒 As for show-and-tell, we had a thoracic surgeon here once who would check out specimens from pathology to show school children. There are devices that will create a sealed plastic bag with tissue in a small amount of formalin, useful for demonstration/teaching purposes (our lab back in residency referred to these as “seal-a-meal” specimens). It just occurred to me that I still have my dog’s bladder stones in a drawer somewhere. They’d make a nice paperweight, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/22 "2013-12-05T16:20:05Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > Not a limb, but when when I had my recent surgery for a herniated disc, I asked the surgeon just before going in if I could have what he removed as a souvenir. I used to have the screw that was used in my knee surgery around… I asked the surgeon for it when they went back in and took it out a year later. He cleaned it up and gave it to me in the post-removal follow up visit. I think a big part of why they don’t let people keep amputated limbs is because they generally only amputate when there’s something like gangrene or in cases of extreme trauma, neither of which is something good to keep around, pickled or not. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/23 "2013-12-05T16:30:21Z")
Never been invited for Osso Bucco at Dr. Lector’s house? ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/24 "2013-12-05T16:48:47Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I was wondering around and ended up down by the incinerator where a guy in full contamination suit was literally shoveling body parts in. They were all loosely wrapped in what looked like brown butchers paper. But I saw some hands, arms, and feet sticking out on some. There had to be about a dozen or so. That would be a very convenient job to have if you are serial killer. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/25 "2013-12-05T18:07:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Maybe somebody’s stockpiling Arms Ha! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Milton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@Mr.Milton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Milton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/26 "2013-12-05T20:54:30Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > A friend of mine lost a leg in an accident. He really, really wanted to keep his amputated leg, but they wouldn’t let him. > > There was a Civil War officer who did, in fact, keep his amputated arm. Fewer regulations in those days. That would be ex-Congressman and General Dan Sickles. He lost the leg (it wasn’t his arm) in the process of almost losing the Battle of Gettysburg for the Union. The leg was de-fleshed and he visited the bones on exhibit at what later became the National Library of Medicine Musuem on the former (not current ) site of Walter Reed in DC. That’d be the one on Georgia Avenue, not Wisconsin Avenue (which is the new, Bethesda site). In Sickles’ day, the museum collected in order to advance the then weak knowledge of medicine, particaularly on how to treat wounds and stuff. You can visit it (the musuem, and the leg --which is still on display) today: > **[NMHM](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/nmhm.html)** The webiste probably has a picture of it. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/27 "2013-12-05T21:06:46Z")
I’m a little disappointed that no medical professional in this thread has yet confirmed my hope that amputated limbs go to Project Franktopus. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/28 "2013-12-05T21:22:19Z")
There’s a story (possibly urban legend) about med students who’d drive around scaring the bejesus out of toll takers by proffering money held by a cadaver arm stuck out a car window. I always liked the part in _Arrowsmith_ involving Cliff Clawson, the pancreas and the banker’s hat. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/29 "2013-12-07T06:35:56Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > That would be a very convenient job to have if you are serial killer. You know, I’ve always kind of wondered about that with someone who works at a crematorium. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/30 "2013-12-07T06:50:08Z")
One company that I know of (unfortunately; one of their sites is one of our customers): [Stericycle.](http://www.stericycle.com/) I _hate_ going there to work. It looks/smells like there’s Hepatitis A thru Z on everything, and the stench…it’s the sort only a hungry buzzard could love. It takes a long hot shower with _lots_ of soap when I get home to feel clean again, and my clothes go immediately into the washer, with a double dose of laundry detergent and bleach. ETA: I think I just threw up a little thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479/31 "2013-12-07T07:36:04Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > There was a Civil War officer who did, in fact, keep his amputated arm. Fewer regulations in those days. My wife has an ancestor who lost an arm in the Civil War. He accused the doctor who amputated it of incompetence, as he felt that the break did not warrant high amputation. The doctor denied it. So my wife’s ancestor went out to the battle site and dug up his own arm, and went back and shoved it in the doctor’s face, proving to him that the break was too low to require high amputation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-they-do-with-amputated-limbs/675479.md?page=1)