A Canadian man has received the latest Christmas cleaning supplies: the articulated bones in his leg that he lost in a motorcycle accident, according to a report.
Justin Fernandes, 24, of Toronto, was on his way home from work in July, when he lost his right leg in the horrific accident, which resulted in months of painful rehabilitation, CTV News reported.
He decided to keep his limbs as a symbol of the hardships he has overcome since that fateful day.
“That was my closing, basically,” Fernandes told the news newspaper in a phone interview, adding that she recently started walking again. “That’s how I wanted to hurt myself.”
After the accident, Fernandes posted a message on a site dedicated to taxidermy and the Prehistory Natural History Center in downtown Toronto responded.
“We didn’t know him when the incident happened …. but through the process we got to know each other well enough and he has become an adoptive member of our family here at the museum,” said Ben Lovatt, head of the PNHC and CTV News.
The center primarily handles animal skeletons for display and pet memorials, which often require joining bones.
But Lovatt and his team decided to help Fernandes achieve her dream and for free.
“Everyone is cured in their own way of a tragic incident,” Lovatt said at the exit.
“And this incident was a collision that left him almost bleeding to the side of the road. So he was trying to find some way to shut himself up, to feel whole again, and that was a unique way to do that. ho ”, he added.
“In fact, we had heard that he had contacted a taxidermy study that quoted him $ 15,000 to do his leg. Now, for a frame of reference that should get you $ 15,000 in terms of bone preparation, he would charge both to get a whole dead whale off the beach, rip it to the bone and ride it, ”Lovatt said.
“So yes, it was a scandalous request for so much money. So it seemed to us that we could return it,” he explained.
Fernandes said he had to get a special waiver to free his own leg.
“If you can imagine that, I’m just in this hospital, I don’t even have a prosthetic leg right now, I’m just jumping, I’m stuck in bed and I’m sending 100 emails and dozens of phone calls everywhere,” he said.
Lovatt also had to prove to the hospital that his center could cope with the delicate work.
“We presented evidence that we could manage it safely and effectively in a clean room, and in terms of the issues that ethics councils had, we showed them the work we’ve done in the past,” he said. and CTV News.
He said that “they showed them that our intention was to provide a clean and beautiful piece to help him reconnect and heal from his trauma, instead of making it a weird show.”
Once she was given the green light, Fernandes had to find a funeral home to transport her leg to the PNHC, which was unimportant during the coronavirus pandemic.
“They pick it up, it’s in boxes, it’s wrapped, it has biohazard stickers everywhere, it looks crazy,” he said.
Lovatt said he and his team removed all soft tissue from the limbs and used peroxide to stabilize and whiten the bones “to make sure the resulting finished product was really sterile and safe.”
Last week, Fernandes was able to see and keep her leg after months of meticulous work.
“It was the first time I kept my whole leg cross-legged: it was unreal,” he said. “I have to remember, ‘Hey, this is your leg, you walked in.’ It’s hard.”
Despite the initial resistance of her relatives, who called Fernandes’ decision “morbid,” she does not regret her decisions.
“For me, turning that sad, morbid object that people would just eliminate and forget, I wanted to turn it into art basically, and that’s what I see, when I see it, art. I think it’s beautiful, ”he told the dam.
“You are saddened by any way you think is the right way to be sad. It’s your loss, “he added.” Two months ago I couldn’t even walk. It takes a lot of willpower, but it can be done. That’s not the end. Your life is not over. “