Featured Image Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images/Getty Stock Image
Topics: Drugs, Health, Mental Health
Callum Jones
Topics: Drugs, Health, Mental Health
What do you think of when you're on vacation? Perhaps a cocktail by the pool or a stroll along the beach.
You certainly don't associate your holiday with a man taking 'magic mushrooms' that leads to him amputating his penis and storing it in a snow-filled jar as a holiday activity.
However, that's exactly what one man did while on vacation in Austria.
A case report confirms a 'Caucasian man with a history of depression under medical treatment and occasional excessive alcohol abuse' consumed around four or five magic mushrooms containing psilocybin.
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Psilocybin is a drug produced by fungi that can cause hallucinations and euphoric sensations.
It does have its benefits as experts have confirmed therapy in the subject has been tested successfully in patients with major depressive disorder.
But while it may have its therapeutic benefits, patients who experience high doses of psilocybin see an increase in paranoia and fear.
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After consuming the 'magic mushrooms', the man is said to have chopped his penile shaft into four different pieces using an axe.
"The most proximal cut completely separated the specimen from the body at
the level of the penile base," the case report stated.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the patient does not remember amputating his own penis.
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After he had completed the shocking act, the man placed the penile fragment in a jar filled with soil and snow.
He then left the holiday home in a 'confused condition' before being noticed by a passerby who noticed some excessive bleeding.
The man was transported to the next village, and was then taken to hospital at around 2am - five hours after he initially amputated his penis.
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The active bleeding worried medical professionals so the patient was immediately transferred to the operating table to be stabilised.
After a period where he was unresponsive to questions, the man's condition was improved and the bleeding was kept under control.
Doctors cleaned the open wound and managed to reattach the penis, despite the fact it had been without blood flow for around nine hours.
Some of the skin on the tip of the man's reattached penis started to die around a week after.
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However, doctors were able to treat it and reserve the damage caused.
The man was eventually able to urinate on his own, despite his reduced penis size.
"To our knowledge, this is the first report of psilocybin-induced penile amputation with subsequent macroscopic replantation," doctors stated of the case.