Can-Do-Ability: Answers and Solutions from my personal experiences of living with a disability

This man didn't want to go to work, so he cut his own foot off!

26 Apr 2012If you're anything like me, and love horror movies, you'd remember the ankle sawing scene from Saw I, where Dr Lawrence Gordon is forced to manually saw his own foot off, to free himself from shackles, before trying to escape the dungeon he woke up in.

The Saw Movie series plot is about making an attempt at teaching people valuable lessons about their lives. A man, known as Jigsaw, does this via a twisted approach of kidnapping his unsuspecting victims and leaving them somewhere secluded, usually attached to a deadly contraption, and the only way to get out of it, is by harming themselves, or someone else.

If you haven't seen this series of movies, and you enjoy blood and gore, I definitely recommend you hire them out! Usually though, this type of scenario is limited to Hollywood, but today's story showcases an incident where life imitates art.

56 year old Url Hans, from Mitterlabill, Austria, hasn't held down a full time job, since 2003. He was unemployed and receiving government benefits, until a representative tracked him down, and booked him in for a medical exam, to prove that he was fit enough to return to work, which he insisted he wasn't.

In an effort to keep from having to return to work, and being forced to do a job that he didn't want to do, Url decided to take matters into his own hands, literally, to make himself unfit for work.

One day last month, Url waited until his wife and adult son had left the house, and went to the boiler room, where he rigged up his electric saw, so he could cut off his own leg, just above the ankle. While sitting in a pool of his own blood, Url threw his amputated foot into a fire, so there would be no chance of it being reattached.

Url had to be airlifted to hospital, for lifesaving surgery, he lost so much blood before paramedics arrived, and on the way to hospital, that he was on the brink of death. His foot was recovered, but it was so badly burned from the fire, that doctors were unable to reattach it.

Now in a stable condition, Url has been transferred to a psychiatric ward to undergo further mental health assessments, because of the meticulous planning involved in the incident.

In an ironic twist, a spokesman from the employment agency here Url was to be assessed at, stated that once he is out of hospital, and well enough, they will still assess him and find work that is suitable for him in his new situation.

Monika, Url's 36 year old wife, has come forward saying that Url wanted to work, but he couldn't find anything outdoors like he enjoyed, which is what led him to this dramatic attempt at incapacitating himself enough to not be forced to look for work, or take on anything that didn't suit him.

This is an extreme attempt to get out of work if ever I've heard one, but clearly, this man has deeper issues, that will hopefully be attended to. According to media reports, he has had mental health issues in the past, so maybe there had been warnings of this incident that went unnoticed.

If you or anyone you know is having any suicidal or otherwise concerning thoughts, please contact lifeline on 13 11 14. To view the original article about Url Hans, please click here: http

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