Amputation

I don't buy into all that crap about whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I do know that it is great to live in an advanced age, so that if we cannot prevent illness and accident, at least we can reduce the effects. I imagine that these two recent arm amputees are grateful for modern technology and modern medicine, respectively. Kasey Edwards, a Florida teenager, survived an attack in June of this year by an 11 1/2' alligator. He has been outfitted with a state-of-the-art robotic arm (click on photo for link to video). An anonymous 54-year-old German man who lost both arms to a thresher in 2002, was the first recipient of a double arm transplant in a 16-hour operation last week. A few years back, I attempted to write a book about traumatic amputation, but abandoned the idea in the early stages of my research, because the stories were so bloody and horrific. I'm much happier writing about the dead, ideally mummified but at least not feeling any pain.