One day in 2012, farmer and factory worker Zheng Yanliang from a small Chinese village experienced some pain in his right leg. Doctors diagnosed it as an arterial embolism, of which there's no cure. His leg had to be amputated.
Problem was, Zheng had no money for the procedure. So he was sent home and given three months to live. The pain became so intense yet no doctor was willing to treat him.
That's when Zheng decided to take matters into his own hands:
Mr Zheng wrapped a piece of wood with a cloth and placed it in his mouth to bite on.
He then began to cut his leg using the saw and the knife.
His wife said that when she found him, his leg had been removed and the pain had resulted in three of Mr Zheng's teeth being forced out from his biting on the wood.
The story went that he had been shot in the foot by natives, and the musket ball had shattered the bones. He knew it was headed south of cheese, so he cut his foot off with a knife, then carved a wooden stump, screwed it into his bone, and walked back to town.
Years later he was in a bar brawl, and he unscrewed his wooden leg and beat two men to death with it. I'm desperately trying to find a source on the story, so feel free to ignore until I confirm.