DIY Man's Hand Saved After He Chopped It Off

Quick-thinking neighbours managed to save a man's hand after he chopped it off doing DIY - by putting it in a bowl of ice.

Edryd Jones was doing work on his bedroom ceiling when he cut off his left hand with a power saw.

"I didn't realise my hand had gone until I went to pick up a piece of wood and it wasn't there. It was on the floor," said the retired teacher, from Ferndale in the Rhondda Valley.

"I thought I was going to bleed to death.

"There was nobody in the house with me so I went downstairs and walked to my neighbour's house.

"I knocked his door and he was absolutely shocked when I said, 'I've cut my hand off'.

"Someone said, 'Where's his hand?' It was still upstairs in the bedroom.

"A neighbour had to go up and get it. My watch was still on the wrist so he took it off and brought the hand down and put it into the bowl of ice."

After a nine-hour operation the 69-year-old can now move his hand and drive again - and the ordeal has not put him off DIY.

"I still have the saw but I won't be using it again. I'm back to using an old-fashioned hand saw," he added.

He still has the watch he was wearing when his accident happened - but with a different strap.

Mr Jones has thanked the hospital that helped him with a gift of £1,000.