Man cuts off his own toes with PLIERS after his operation was ‘cancelled’

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW

A man cut off his own toes with a pair of pliers after his operation was cancelled at the last minute.

Former soldier Paul Dibbins (pictured above), 57, a diabetic, had been scheduled to have his leg removed below the knee after suffering frostbite on his feet while repairing a car in cold conditions.

But he says his planned surgery was cancelled by the NHS, so the father-of-three from Buckfastleigh, Devon, took matters into his own hands.

Using a pair of pliers, he cut off the toes himself after they developed gangrene.

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The ex-army Lance Corporal didn’t take any painkillers during the procedure and used his first aid knowledge to scrape off the dead flesh around the two toes on his right foot.

Sitting in his living room, he cut through the tendon - which took an hour - and then removed the toes.

“I did it because it’s what had to be done, my doctor told me my toes were going to kill me,” he said.

Mr Dibbins removed two toes (Picture: SWNS)

“I’ve had one surgeon say to me it was more luck than judgment but then I had another surgeon saying I was mad but it was textbook.”

Mr Dibbins suffered frostbite after spending three hours fixing a blown head gasket on his son’s car during icy winds in the driveway of his hilltop home in March 2015.

His feet turned black and he was brought to Torbay Hospital.

He said he was wheeled to an operating theatre but the procedure was cancelled.

For the next nine months, he treated his own wounds twice a day using a Swiss army knife, sterile scissors and homemade dressing.

“I took six painkillers in the first week and then none for nine months,” he said.

“I didn’t want to die and didn’t want my leg cut off.”

Mr Dibbins said he saw doctors every six weeks, but when his foot turned gangrenous in November 2015, he said he had to wait weeks for an appointment.

In the end, he decided to carry out the procedure himself.

(Main picture: SWNS)