Amputation on request, devotees and wannabes

Many years ago I discovered the world of devotees and wannabes. A devotee, a wannabe? 

On this planet, there are devotees. The original word for them is acrotomophilia. Coming from the Greek. A devotee or admirer is someone attracted to disabilities and especially to amputees. Worldwide 1 on 500 people is one.

Near that there is the group of wannabes; People who want to become disabled by wish and especially being an amputee. Around 1 on 30.000 people have this attraction. Also coming from the Greek apotemnophilia, or even those days named BIID. 

Many devotees do everything to get in touch with amputees. Many wannabes try to find a surgeon to get rid of the limb or limbs that don't belong to them. 

A few illegal ways right now exist. 

One is Mexico where a surgeon asks $ 20.000 for each limb and then we have the 'promotion' in the Philippines what is 50 procent cheaper and $ 10.000 for removing a limb.

Many wannabes don't have that amount and try it in their own way. Many tried and did it with dry ice or even with injecting local anaesthetics, to do it by themselves. 

For sure the most famous wannabe was George Boyer who shot in his own leg and came out for it. He lived in Florida, USA.

Then there was the case John Ronald Brown, a surgeon who performed an illegal amputation on a 79 yo wannabe patient, named Philip Bondy. The morning after surgery, Bondy was found dead at the hotel. The body was found by Dr. Gregg M. Furth, a psychologist and also a wannabe.

Not to forget the case of Dr Smith in Scotland who performed some amputations on wannabes. Smith worked together with the documentary Horizon from the BBC and 2 psychiatrists who screened first the wannabes. 

My book Amputation on request about those subjects are available at lulu, amazon, Barnes and Noble,...

There is an A5, pocket and eBook version.

Maybe for the amputee who did became one in a normal way, it will be pretty hard to understand why a devotee find them attractive, or why someone want to be as you. More and more and during many years of investigation, the phenomenon became more in the daylight. 

Some wannabes compare it with transgenders and the feeling of being not complete in the actual body.