BELLINGHAM — Bellingham police say doctors were unable to reattach the right arm of a man who severed his limb with a homemade guillotine last October at a transient camp.
At the time officials did not say if attempts to reattach the arm were successful. Police disclosed the information Wednesday in response to a records request. Police said the 32-year-old man was in stable condition after hospital treatment and held for a mental evaluation.
Officers say he built a 16-foot tall guillotine with scrap lumber and sharpened a 60-pound piece of metal. He apparently applied a tourniquet before dropping the blade.
The man went to a medical clinic for help but wouldn’t say where his arm was because “it was better to lose that part than one’s soul.” Police found the arm.
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