Doctors agreed to cut off a man’s fingers even though there was nothing physically wrong with them, after he threatened to do it himself if not.
The patient, 20, suffered from ‘Body Integrity Identity Dysphoria (BIID)’, a rare disorder that nevertheless can have deadly consequences if people attempt to deal with it with DIY surgery.
An official report into the case published last month tells how the ambidextrous Canadian man had hated the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand since he was a child and regularly had nightmares about them burning or rotting.
He felt ‘overwhelming’ distress from the presence of the fingers, recognising their ownership but perceiving they ‘should not belong to his body’, the report says.
The man, who worked in a saw mill, was considering ‘building a small guillotine to cut his fingers’ as he could not imagine living with them for years to come.
He sought medical help, and agreed to first …