Are Your Body Parts Yours After Surgery? The Surprising Answer

Do you get to keep it...?

#Amputee #Surgery #Leg

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My Amputation Story!

Fourteen years of pain and failed ankle surgeries brought me to 2018, when I made the difficult decision to become a twenty-seven-year-old below-the-knee elective amputee. This channel has documented my journey adjusting to life with a visible disability as an amputee, and continues to be a haven to discuss physical and mental health!

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[dongrant]

My sister had a cesarean years ago. Prior to surgery, she had to sign a standard consent form, part of which stated that anything removed during the surgery was property of the hospital. She wouldn’t sign it until they amended it to let her keep her baby! The nurse said nobody had ever noticed the mistake and that they would correct it right away for future cesareans.

[kaydenl]

I wanted to keep my jaw. I had to get my entire right jaw bone, joint and all, removed because of a tumor. I begged to keep it but I couldn’t 😭. It would’ve been so funny to frame it like people do with animal bones, then when someone asks “oh cool what is that from?” I could’ve answered “me”. The shock on their face—shame I’m missing that

[disgustedluigi]

I had part of my skull removed and replaced with a kind of composite material. They let me keep the piece of my skull (they removed the fleshy bits first obviously). I carve wood as a hobby and built a skull sculpture and attached my piece to it. It’s in my home office now.

[ricequin]

In the U.K. there are very strict regulations about what happens to removed body parts stemming from a scandal decades back when’re it was discovered that a lot of children’s body parts had been kept without permission at a hospital. I had really wanted one of my gallstones when my gallbladder was removed. My surgeon said he couldn’t even photograph them because of a different scandal in which theatre staff had been taking pictures of anaesthetised patients. Now no cameras can be in the operating theatre except in very specific circumstances for training and with full permission from all involved. At least these awful things came to light and brought about change.

[claritey]

I asked for my leg after I woke up from surgery but they said no because it was a biohazard due to the infection and had to be legally cremated. I even asked if I could have the ashes but they explained they are cremated in big batches and couldn't do mine separate. I wanted the leg very badly because I wanted to be able to make the same joke my grandma did. After she had her leg amputated she buried it in her future grave plot and from then on she would joke she already had one foot in the grave. We have a family owned cemetary so I could have done the same thing and made the same joke. I was just so sick at the time I didn't have it in me to fight them on returning it to me otherwise I would have.

[kierra]

I was born with an extra thumb so I had 11 fingers and this thumb was special because unlike most where it’s just extra skin and meat mine had bone, nail, nerves it was a full-fledged extra little finger so the doctors when they cut it off, decided to keep it in a jar and use it for school purposes so I get to say that my body part is teaching young doctors. I feel proud. I also found out that they’re still using it when I went back after 10 years of the surgery and they took new pictures of my hands and they have it labeled 10 years after surgery of how it healed. I’m like I’m still teaching them.

[lpsjewel]

If I ever get anybody part removed for some reason, I’m going to make sure, I at least get a physical photocopy of it. Also, if it’s a limb I’m demanding my bones back.

[JayLiszte]

“It’s my leg, I’ve had it for as long as I can remember” - Gregory House.

[doofhund]

Worked in a hospital. There was a room filled with lab specimens that were held for a specified amount of time( incase of an issue ). and then a company came in and cremated the specimens. All things removed from a patient in surgery are sent to pathology. So don't worry, your foot was not alone during that time.

[withoutmanual]

I had a friend in HS who asked for the ashes of his foot. He had them in a foot shaped urn his aunt made out clay😂 he loved to show it to every new person that came to the house. He even had a small ceremony once a yr on the day it was amputated. Like a birthday. And his toast was always the same.
"Until the day we reunite!"😂☠️
It got me every time.

[mouser]

My doc told me that he only knew of one instance where a person kept their lower leg. The patient was a mortician and was part owner of a mortuary. She wanted to keep it because she wanted to be buried “whole”. I guess she knew the right people in order to get permission.

[Amanda-nmhg]

Technical you grew it, your mom just provided the fuel and environment for you to do your thing 😊

[lesliejohnson]

I had a HUGE ovarian cyst. It was the kind that went rogue and just started growing stuff like hair, skin and teeth (and it had nothing to do with pregnancy) I was 18 and wanted it put a piece of it in a jar for me to keep.

Evidently, I freaked my surgeon out. Lol. They refused to even save it for me look at it. I’m 69 now and I STILL would have liked to see it!

[mindfullviewer]

In the Netherlands you can keep it, and a pathologist made a lamp of a leg for someone as a "gift". The amputee wanted it and he was like why not give it a go

[clararocha]

My friend’s dad got to keep his leg and did a funeral for it in his backyard. Called all friends and family and did a speech. After it was buried he threw a barbecue and made a joke about “you guys wouldn’t even know if you were eating my leg or a cow lol” great guy. His leg had a headstone.

[neneninetails]

The phrase “my foot could have been sitting on a shelf somewhere” is hilarious

[pcs]

Breast cancer survivor here. I found out they kept my breast tissue - somewhere - for 5 years so they could test it 5 years later to see if I needed to stay on Letrozole. I had no idea my breast was sitting in a freezer somewhere.

[heatheryoung]

I had a tumor removed that ended up being the 7th known case of that type of cancer so my tumor is in a jar in the Houston Medical Center and cancer researchers around the world have to write a paper trying to convince them that they deserve a thin slice of it. If they get approved, they go to the next phase where they have to go in front of a panel of doctors to be questioned further about their research. If they pass that, they get a thin slice. That's the closest I will get to being a part of history. 😂

[joannec]

Four months after my eye was removed, they did additional tests on the tumor; they still had my eyeball and the tumor stored somewhere. I imagine a room full of glass jars, each jar containing an eyeball. 😅

[rustyshackleford]

My wifes leg had been massively injured in an MVA, after 13 years and numerous surgeries, plates, and screws, she made the decision to amputate due to constant pain.
The hospital was a teaching hospital and they asked to keep and use it for teaching. My wife said yes.