A Cork woman has explained why she cut off her own finger after living with chronic pain for years.
Megan Cullen performed the self amputation last Friday, saying that she had “had enough” of the pain that had plagued her since she was a teenager.
The Bantry woman caught her right index finger in a car door when she was 18. Despite multiple surgeries and medication, she said she was unable to rid herself of the pain in her finger.
Megan told Red FM‘s Neil Prendeville that she cut off her finger last week. She said that she now feels “brilliant” and does not regret her decision.
“I had planned it for about a week,” she said. “I’m not saying exactly how I did it, I don’t want people doing what I did.”
“I made sure I was Detolled (…) and I took it off. I screamed and I called for my mother to call the ambulance.”
Megan said that she was unable to sleep because of her chronic pain. She attended counselling and surgeons who told her that the nerves in finger “couldn’t get back” to where they were supposed to be.
The 25-year-old described her pain as a “10 out of 10” every day and night.
LISTEN BACK: Megan Cullen, 25, from Bantry has successfully cut off her right index finger after 8 years of chronic regional pain. She spoke to @NeilRedFM this morning.
LISTEN NOW ON RED EXTRA https://t.co/tuwQNNPeHj pic.twitter.com/22Ocz60sEc
— Red FM (@CorksRedFM) February 20, 2019
After she cut off the finger on Friday, she and her mother waited 45 minutes for an ambulance to come. While she waited, she ensured that her finger was nowhere to be seen so it could not be reattached at the hospital.
“I threw my finger away so that they couldn’t grab it and sew it back on,” she said. “I got rid of it. I threw it in the bin. I made sure it was nowhere to be seen.”
This isn’t the first time that Megan has made headlines for her chronic pain story.
In 2015, she tried to amputate the finger using an axe. She failed and was later treated for her injuries.
Megan spent last weekend in Cork University Hospital following her self amputation. She said that she hasn’t had to take any pain killers since.
“It’s been brilliant,” she said. “Ever since I have had no pain (…) I’m grand.”
