I hate the sight of blood. Even if I get the slightest nick on my finger, I’ll be lathering it with lavender gel (it’s my security blanket). So it must take balls of steel (vajayjays of steel if you’re a lady) to perform a self surgery in extreme conditions.
Amanda Feilding obviously had such a vajayjay when she decided to perform trepanation on herself:
Amanda Feilding is a British artist and scientific director. Feilding suffered from a condition that left her feeling exhausted and spent years looking for a reputable surgeon who would perform a technique known as trepanning. This is a procedure where a tiny portion of the skull is drilled into to allow blood to flow more easily around the brain. Eventually she gave up and at age 27 she decided to do the surgery herself. She was equipped with a dentist’s electric drill operated by a foot pedal she then taped dark glasses to her face to stop the blood running into her eyes. She first made an incision with a scalpel and then drilled, dipping the drill bit in water every so often to cool it down. She lost almost a liter of blood but she was pleased with her surgery. Over the next four hours she noticed herself rising up with a feeling of elation and relaxation. Feilding says, “I went out and had steak for supper, and then I went to a party.”
Read about 9 other individuals who operated on themselves in the Top 10 Incredible Self Surgeries.