Has someone ever bitten their finger off

When bitten on the finger by a venomous snake, a farmer in China took the only recourse he thought available to him: he lopped the digit right off before undertaking a journey to the nearest city with a hospital.

But, according to the doctors who treated the patient once he arrived, he needn't have bothered with the chop.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, the snake was a pit viper locally known in the Shangyu district of Zhejiang province as the "five-step snake." Local myth has it that, once the snake bites, you can walk just five steps before collapsing from the effects of the venom.

So, to prevent the venom from spreading, the 60-year-old man acted swiftly, self-amputating the site of the snake bite. He then wrapped the wound in cloth and made the 80-kilometre (50-mile) trip to a hospital in Hangzhou to receive treatment.

Doctors at Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine reportedly told media that the patient, identified only as Zhang, seemed fine - he didn't show any symptoms such as breathing problems, headache or bleeding from the gums that would be expected from a bad snake bite.

Nevertheless, his brave self-amputation was… well, a little bit of overkill.

"It's not necessary at all [to cut it off]," doctor Yuan Chengda is reported as saying. "The five-step snake is not that toxic."

The so-called five-step snake may not be highly venomous, but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous. It's a type of pit viper called Deinagkistrodon acutus, primarily found in northern Vietnam, southern China, Hainan, and Taiwan.

This snake's venom is a powerful haemotoxin that breaks down blood cells and causes bleeding. Larger individuals are known to be deadly to humans, so it's not unreasonable to fear a bite - and, in fact, Zhang told the doctors that one of his neighbours had died from a snakebite earlier this year.

Yuan also noted that Zhang's method of dealing with his injury is not uncommon. There is a lot of old and outdated information about how to treat snakebites, including cutting into the bite and sucking it to get the venom out (it doesn't work) or applying a tourniquet (also not helpful and potentially dangerous).

Around 30 percent of the hospital's snakebite patients have tried some radical method of treating themselves, and often ended up needing more medical care than if they hadn't.

"Some used knives to cut their fingers or toes, some used ropes or iron wires to bind the bitten limb tightly, and some even tried to destroy the poison in their body by burning their skin," Yuan said.

"When they arrive at the hospital, some people's limbs are already showing signs of gangrene."

According to advice from Queensland government in Australia (a state that's home to some of the world's deadliest snakes, but with a surprisingly low snakebite fatality rate), you need to wrap the wound tightly with a bandage or cling film, stay as still as you can, and get to a hospital straight away (call an ambulance if possible).

You should never cut or suck the wound, apply a tourniquet, or attempt to wash out the venom - venom can be harvested from the wound and used to identify the snake, allowing doctors to administer the appropriate antivenom as quickly as possible.

As for Zhang, he was administered antivenom and his wound was cleaned and dressed; he's reported that he is home and healing well. Unfortunately, his finger couldn't be reattached - he'd left it behind on the mountain.

Steve Little, a member of the group Catching Online Predators, had to have one of his fingers amputated after a suspected pedophile bit through it after being confronted. The suspect has been sentenced to 10 years in jail on multiple charges, including intent of meeting someone under 16 and wounding with intent.

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Posted by6 years ago

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I heard from someone that you can bite your own finger off just as easily as you can a carrot, but your brain stops you from doing so out of pure instinct. So if I had no other choice, could I actually bite someone's finger off?

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level 1

· 6 yr. ago · edited 6 yr. ago

Certified not donkey-brained

Your jaw is certainly powerful enough to bite a finger off but it would require much much more force than biting through a carrot.

I doubt you would be able to do it in one swift bite like a carrot either, you would have to tear and grind with your molars to get through the muscle, tendons and bone.

level 1

Absolutely. You may not be able to cut through the bone, so you aim for the joints and it should be done fairly quickly

level 1

Yes. Just not your own.

Our average bite strength is more than enough to bite off a finger at a joint, but you have a built in safety that prevents you from doing it to yourself.

level 1

You won't be able to bite through the bone itself without fucking up your teeth so you would have to find the joints, locking someone's finger in your mouth is just as good though

level 1

Chicken bones are weaker than human bones and it's difficult to bite through a chicken bone, so it wouldn't be as easy as a carrot, but it probably would be possible.

level 1

Are we in Syberia? </Jack Reacher>

level 1

Think of a chicken wing, you can bite through the joint fairly easily. You have to get past the psychological aspect of it though.

You're going to have someone's severed finger in your mouth. Are you sure you want this?

Your brain stops you from biting off your own finger. I'm not positive how or why, but I know it's almost impossible for you to do that to yourself.

level 1

Try just biting through a chicken leg next time you eat one, and realize that it's MUCH MUCH softer cooked flesh, AND cooked chicken bone - which is already light, soft and brittle. You can do it, but it ain't easy per se.