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Man Receives His Own Taxidermied Severed Leg Just In Time For Christmas

Man Receives His Own Taxidermied Severed Leg Just In Time For Christmas

Justin Fernandes was struck by a motorcycle which left him without his right leg

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Irrespective of what Father Christmas brought you yesterday, nothing will quite compare to what Justin Fernandes was gifted... his own severed leg.

Back in July, the 24-year-old was walking home from work when he was struck by a motorbike. He was rushed to hospital but he had already lost his right leg.

Now, the articulated bones of his lost limb were put back together by the Prehistoria Natural History Centre (PNHC) in Toronto after Justin called upon a dedicated taxidermy page to help him.

PNHC routinely handle skeletons of animals for display purposes and also have a business doing pet memorials - which often require putting the bones back together again. Nice.

Facebook/Prehistoria

Speaking to CTV News, Head Director of the PNHC Ben Lovatt said: "We didn't know him when the incident happened.... but through the process we've gotten to know each other quite well and he's kind of become an adopted member of our family here at the museum.

"Everyone heals in their own way from a tragic incident and this incident was a hit and run that left him almost bleeding to death at the side of the road. So he was trying to find some way to have closure, some way to kind of feel whole again, and this was a unique way to do so."

Remarkable, Mr Lovatt provided his services free of charge and his team got to work.

He went on: "We actually had heard that he had reached out to a taxidermy studio who quoted him $15,000 to do his leg. Now, for a frame of reference what $15,000 should get you in terms of bone preparation, I would charge that much to take an entire dead whale off of a beach, tear it down to bone and mount it up.

"So yeah, it was quite an outrageous request for that much money. So for us it seemed like it was a something we could give back."

Facebook/Prehistoria

Justin recalled the effort it took for him to get his leg, saying: "I had to get a custom waiver to get it released. If you can picture this, I'm just in this hospital, I don't even have a prosthetic leg at this point, I'm just hopping around, I'm stuck in bed and I'm sending 100 emails and dozens of phone calls all over the place."

Days before Christmas (23 December), Justin got to see and hold his leg for the first time. He said: "That was the first time I held my entire leg rearticulated - it was unreal. I have to remind myself that, 'Hey, that's your leg, you walked on that'. It's hard.

"To me, turning that morbid, sad object that people would just dispose of 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."

Now then... where's it going to go?

Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Prehistoria

Topics: Community, Weird