Aron Ralston describes the amputation — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:01in the canyon Rolston was once again
3. 0:03idly chipping away at The Rock when his
4. 0:06knife brushed the tip of his thumb it
5. 0:10ripped part of the skin off of my thumb
6. 0:13um kind of like the way an old blister
7. 0:14will will rip away and so I I that made
8. 0:17me curious and I started prodding around
9. 0:20and I stuck The Knife Down in and at my
10. 0:23thumb at that spot and it slid in like I
11. 0:26was just like I was sliding it into a
12. 0:29pad of warm butter and it went in I
13. 0:32couldn't feel it of course but it went
14. 0:34in about a/ inch and
15. 0:38then this this hissing sound of of
16. 0:41gas the the decomposition gas is
17. 0:44releasing from inside my arm my hand
18. 0:47where they'd been building up as my arm
19. 0:48was my hand was decomposing over those
20. 0:51five days and that threw me into a panic
21. 0:54it it scared me I
22. 0:56was it it it appalled me it was just it
23. 0:59was a gruesome concept that my hand was
24. 1:02decaying while still attached to my body
25. 1:05and I started yanking my hand my arm and
26. 1:07I was I was giving it everything that I
27. 1:09had and was twisting myself around
28. 1:12trying to slide my arm up and down like
29. 1:14this and then in an instant ralon
30. 1:17realized what he had to do to save his
31. 1:19life it it came to me this this Epiphany
32. 1:22that I could break that I could break
33. 1:24the bones because my arm was caught so
34. 1:26tightly that I could torque myself the
35. 1:29other Bon tor a basic principle to a
36. 1:31former engineer like Ralston remember he
37. 1:34had made an initial attempt to amputate
38. 1:36his arm two days before only to realize
39. 1:39there was no way his pocket knife could
40. 1:41slice through the bones but if he could
41. 1:43break them maybe he'd have a chance he
42. 1:46would have to snap both of the bones in
43. 1:48his arm to make it work and so I I
44. 1:51slammed my body against the opposite
45. 1:54wall I grabbed the back side of the
46. 1:56Boulder and even got my feet up to where
47. 1:59I was I was standing halfway up the wall
48. 2:02and grabbing the backside The Rock and
49. 2:06humping my body over it until finally
50. 2:08that bottom bone
51. 2:12snapped and this pow sound went kind of
52. 2:17echoing through the
53. 2:19canyon
54. 2:22and I didn't even know if I started
55. 2:25feeling excited at that point but I just
56. 2:27knew the next thing that I had to do was
57. 2:29I had to break the other bone and so I I
58. 2:31grabbed the bottom side of the rock um
59. 2:34and and pushed and tried to sink myself
60. 2:36down until I was pushing
61. 2:40up to create the downward leverage on
62. 2:43the top bone until it too made the same
63. 2:47noise pow and and snapped in the same
64. 2:50spot thankfully um right right where my
65. 2:54wrist was caught they both
66. 2:56broke right along here just just behind
67. 2:59the bones of my my
68. 3:00wrist but now you've got to cut off the
69. 3:03arm yeah and I said to
70. 3:06myself here we go Aron you're in it now
71. 3:09and I took my knife its blades were now
72. 3:11bent and dull from Days of stabbing at
73. 3:13the Rock at first I still had the the
74. 3:16larger blade out and and I held it up
75. 3:18against my arm and I started pushing
76. 3:19into it and I I couldn't get the the
77. 3:21knife to sink in and so I switched over
78. 3:24and I I pulled out the smaller blade and
79. 3:27with the smaller blade then I actually
80. 3:29started the the amputation the smaller
81. 3:31one was still a little more sharp the
82. 3:33smaller blade was just 2 in long I just
83. 3:37dove into this exercise this this surg
84. 3:40surgical procedure and started cutting
85. 3:43away and he cut through the top layer of
86. 3:46skin and muscle until he saw an artery
87. 3:48only then did he realize he'd forgotten
88. 3:50to apply the tourniquet he had fashioned
89. 3:52days earlier from the insulated lining
90. 3:54of his water bottle I put the tourniquet
91. 3:57on and I was bleeding down the wall
92. 4:00and I severed the artery and I he cut
93. 4:03through more muscle and two more
94. 4:05arteries then tendon the most difficult
95. 4:08layer his dull knife was unable to cut
96. 4:11through through it so I ended up taking
97. 4:12the plier side of the
98. 4:14knife and using that to to grab and
99. 4:18twist and rip
100. 4:20um until the tendon gave away that it
101. 4:23was slow painful excruciating work he
102. 4:26hacked away at his arm for nearly an
103. 4:28hour layer by layer until he saw what he
104. 4:31knew would cause the most intense pain
105. 4:34yet and then I was looking at the the
106. 4:37nerve this little strand of
107. 4:39spaghetti running
108. 4:42through running through my arm and I had
109. 4:45to take the knife and pry it up and even
110. 4:48just when I touched it it felt like the
111. 4:51fire
112. 4:52of sticking my arm into a
113. 4:57a just a pot of liid metal it it burned
114. 5:02all the way up up my arm and and I took
115. 5:05it again and lifted it up I knew it was
116. 5:07going to hurt and I plucked it up and
117. 5:10did in a motion like that and that that
118. 5:14fire sensation redoubled and went all
119. 5:17the way up to my
120. 5:20shoulder but I knew that that was the
121. 5:22hard part it was only a few more moments
122. 5:24of work after and then boom and I wasn't
123. 5:28even attached anymore and I fell down
124. 5:30like this and I I
125. 5:35I I was
126. 5:47free you were
127. 5:51reborn it was this the happiest moment
128. 5:55of my life and it's it's funny to think
129. 5:58about it being
130. 6:01there will never be a more powerful
131. 6:03experience for me it was
132. 6:07absolutely the greatest feeling to be to
133. 6:10be given the chance to get out of
134. 6:13here looking down Canyon I knew I had I
135. 6:17had a hell of a trip left but at least I
136. 6:22I I was not going to die right
137. 6:26here and
138. 6:29the power of that
139. 6:32was astonishing