According to a report, a Canadian man got the ultimate stocking – the joints of the leg he lost in a car accident.
Justin Fernandes, 24, of Toronto, walked away from work in July when he lost his right leg in the gruesome accident that resulted in months of painful rehabilitation, CTV News reported.
He decided to keep his limb as a symbol of the hardships he had overcome since that fateful day.
“It was basically my closure,” Fernandes said in a telephone interview with the news agency, adding that he had only recently started walking again. “This is how I wanted to grieve.”
After the crash, Fernandes posted a message on a website dedicated to taxidermy – and the Prehistoria Natural History Center in downtown Toronto responded.
“We did not know him when the incident happened … but through the process we got to know each other very well and he became an adopted member of our family here in the museum,” said PNHC chief Ben Lovatt. , told CTV News.
The center mostly handles animal skeletons for exhibits and memorials for pets, which often have to place bones.
But Lovatt and his team decided to help Fernandes make his dream come true – and for free.
“Everyone heals in their own way of a tragic incident,” Lovatt said.
‘And this incident was a hit and run that nearly bled him to death along the road. So he tried to find a way to shut down, a way to feel whole again, and that was a unique way to do it, ‘he added.
‘We actually heard he reached out to a taxidermy studio that quoted him for $ 15,000 to do his leg. Now, for a $ 15,000 reference frame you have to get in terms of bone preparation, I would cost so much to take a whole dead whale off a beach, break it down to the bone and put it on, ‘ said Lovatt.
“So yes, that was quite an outrageous request for so much money. So it seemed to us that it was something we could give back, ”he explained.
Fernandes said he had to get a special pardon to release his own leg.
‘If you can imagine it, I’m just in this hospital, at this point I do not even have a prosthetic leg, I’m just jumping around, I’m stuck in bed and sending 100 emails and dozens over all the phone calls , ”He said.
Lovatt also had to prove to the hospital that his center could handle the fine work.
“We have proven that we can handle it in a safe and effective way in a clean room, and in terms of the issues they had about the ethics board, we showed them what we have done in the past,” he told CTV News.
He said they “showed them that we needed to provide a clean, beautiful piece to help him recover and heal from his trauma again, as opposed to a freak show out of it.”
After getting the green light, Fernandes had to find a funeral home to transport his leg to the PNHC – no small task during the coronavirus pandemic.
“They’re picking it up, it’s in a box, it’s wrapped, it has bio-hazard stickers everywhere – it looks crazy,” he said.
Lovatt said he and his team then removed all the soft tissue from the limb and used peroxide to stabilize the bones and whiten them “to ensure that the resulting final product would actually be sterile and safe.”
Last week, Fernandes saw his leg – and held on – after months of careful work.
“It was the first time I had my whole leg repaired – it was unreal,” he said. “I have to remind myself that ‘Hey, this is your leg, you walked on it. “It’s hard.”
Despite the initial resistance of his family members, who described Fernandes’ decision as’ morbid ‘, he does not regret his choice.
‘For me, when I changed that morbid, sad object that people would just throw away and forget, I basically wanted to turn it into art, and that’s what I see, when I see it, art. I think it’s beautiful, ”he said.
‘You grieve as you feel the right way is to grieve. It is your loss, ”he added. ‘Two months ago I could not even walk. It takes a lot of willpower, but it can be done. This is not the end. Your life is not over. ”