A Canadian received the taxidermized leg he lost in a motorcycle accident months earlier, just in time for Christmas.
Justin Fernandes, 24, from Toronto, Canada, had his leg severed when he was hit by a motorcycle while returning home from work in July.
Although the incident caused a long stay in the hospital and months in a rehabilitation center, Mr. Fernandes decided to keep the articulated bones of his lost leg as part of his recovery.
“This was my closure, basically,” Fernandes told CTV News. “This is how I wanted to suffer,” he added.
Preparing the leg was not simple, but after Fernandes joked about having his leg treated on a Facebook page dedicated to taxidermy, Toronto’s Prehistoria Natural History Center (PNHC) responded to him.
The center usually works with animal skeletons for display in the museum and for pet memorials, which requires them to put the bones back on, according to New York Post.
However, after hearing about Fernandes’ story and the severity of the accident, the center team decided to help him taxidermize him.
“We didn’t know him when the incident happened…. but through the process, we got to know each other very well and he kind of became a foster member of our family here at the museum, ”said PNHC chief Ben Lovatt to CTV.
“Everyone heals from a tragic incident in his own way,” continued Mr. Lovatt. “And this incident was a hit and run that left him almost bleeding to death by the side of the road.
“So he was trying to find a way to close, to feel whole again, and that was a unique way to do that,” he added.
Mr. Fernandes had previously received a $ 15,000 (£ 11,095) quote from another taxidermy studio to prepare his leg, but Mr. Lovatt said the center would do it for free, calling it an “outrageous order” .
The process for Fernandes to gain ownership of the leg was also not easy, as he needed to obtain a special waiver to release it.
“If you can imagine that, I’m just in this hospital, I don’t have a prosthetic leg right now, I’m just jumping, I’m stuck in bed and I’m sending 100 emails and dozens of calls everywhere,” he told CTV.
As soon as the center managed to convince the hospital that they could do the job and Mr. Fernandes was given permission to remove his leg, the 24-year-old had to find a funeral home to transport it to the PNHC.
“They pick it up, it is packed, it is wrapped, it has biohazard stickers everywhere – it seems crazy,” said Fernandes about the delivery.
After Mr. Lovatt and his team removed all the soft tissue from the bone and sterilized it, Mr. Fernandes was finally able to see the finished product just before Christmas.
“This was the first time that I held my entire leg back together – it was unreal,” he said. “I have to remember that, ‘Hey, this is your leg, you walked on it.’ It’s difficult, ”he told CTV.
Although some members of his family were initially against the idea, D. Fernandes said that he does not regret having made the choice, since it helped him to move forward.
“For me, to become that morbid and sad object that people would just throw away and forget, I wanted to basically transform it into art, and that’s what I see, when I see it, art. I think it’s beautiful, ”said Fernandes to CTV.
“You suffer the way you feel it is the right way to suffer. It’s your loss, ”he continued, before adding:“ Two months ago, I couldn’t even walk. It takes a lot of willpower, but it can be done. This is not the end. Your life is not over. “