"A former soldier cut off two of his gangrene-ridden toes with a pair of tin metal pliers without anesthetic in his living room after becoming frustrated at a six-week delay to being operated on by the National Health Service (NHS)."
[...] "He says he eventually developed gangrene and his doctor said his infected toes would have to be removed. Rather than wait six weeks for the operation, Dibbins took matters into his own hands.
He says the operation, performed without pain killers and in his living room while biting on a rolled up towel, took about an hour. His wife of 40 years was in the house but says she did not want to look.
“Knowing that it would take at least another six weeks to get me in front of a surgeon again, that’s when I bit the bullet and cut off the toes,” Dibbins told the North Devon Journal.
“I did it because it’s what had to be done. My doctor told me my toes were going to kill me."
https://www.rt.com/uk/364152-gangrene-frostbite-toes-cut/
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:41PM
I have seen phage therapy and it does look promising for infections. However, in diabetes the problem is generally loss of circulation due to damage to the blood vessels and nerve damage. Frostbite is similar It is not not an infectious process.
Diabetic ulcers might be helped by hyperbaric oxygen, but dry gangrene means the disease process is too far along for that.