Amputation

Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for such problems.

Autoamputation

In some rare cases when a person has become trapped (on account of getting a limb stuck) in a deserted place, with no means of communication or hope of rescue, the victim has amputated his own limb:

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• In 2003, 27-year old Aron Ralston amputated his forearm using his pocketknife and breaking and tearing the two bones, after the arm got stuck under a boulder when hiking in Utah.
• A month later, an Australian coal miner amputated his own arm with a Stanley knife after it became trapped when the front-end loader he was driving overturned three kilometers underground. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/29/1056825279321.html