A young woman who chopped off her finger with an axe due to chronic pain has now launched a fundraiser to help pay for the removal of her finger stump to further ease the agony.
Megan Cullen, 29, from Bantry in west Cork, suffered extreme 24/7 pain in her right index finger since catching it in a car door when she was 18.
Four years ago, she self-amputated her finger with an axe because she was suffering from Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
She believed she had no option but to self-amputate because painkillers and two operations did not help with the 24/7 pain she experienced.
Megan said she tried to amputate the finger in 2015 but that failed.
But, after successfully self- amputating the finger in 2019, she threw her finger in the bin "so they couldn’t find it and try to put it back on."
Following the self-amputation, her pain had eased somewhat. However, she is now in constant pain due to hypersensitive nerves.
Her self-amputation story made headlines across the country at the time.
But now, her mum Catherine has said Megan needs an operation on her right hand due to increasing pain.
"Clinical Regional Pain Syndrome is to do with nerve damage," Catherine told Cork’s 96FM’s Opinion Line with PJ Coogan.
"She had constant pain in her finger and now has constant pain in the stump.
"She can’t wash her hair properly because of the pain. I have to dress her and she is physically sick from the pain and nobody can help.
"She was so desperate a number of years ago that she cut off her own finger to try and ease the pain."
Catherine explained they have launched a GoFundMe called ‘Meg Minus Stump Equals Life’ to help raise the €30,000 they require for Megan to have an operation privately.
"It’s nerve damage from the time she caught her finger in the car door. And now it has progressed to the point where the nerve is permanently damaged and she’s in permanent excruciating pain," explained Catherine.
"Surgeons can remove her whole knuckle and cut the nerves that are damaged and that should ease the pain and make it more bearable.
"We found a private surgeon in Dublin who can do it but it’s expensive - around €30,000 - as there is a lot involved in it and they have to get the pain under control before they operate.
"She has been in pain for 11 years now," Catherine added.
"I have seen my happy, joyful, confident daughter go so downhill that it is frightening."
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