A surgeon has been jailed for cutting off his own legs.
Neil Hopper, 49, was an NHS vascular surgeon who carried out hundreds of amputation operations and was trusted to give patients the correct care.
In 2019, Hopper claimed he was on a family camping trip until he and his young daughter fell ill.
After returning home, his daughter recovered quickly; however, he didn’t.
The doctor had decided to rest while his wife and children visited family. The following morning, he was awoken to a call from his partner.
Hopper said at the time: “Thankfully she phoned me – I was speaking gobbledygook down the phone and I was making no sense.”
The surgeon was called an ambulance, which took him to Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske, his place of work.
He was told he had sepsis, stating he saw his toes ‘turning blue,’ so he knew he would likely need his legs amputated.
After weeks of oxygen therapy and an operation to remove his toes, it became clear he would need further amputations so he would still be able to stand for long periods of time when he returned to work.
Hopper stated: “I had a chat with the plastic surgeons, and I met with the prosthetic nurse and decided actually losing more would give me a better outcome.
“I opted not to have hundreds and hundreds of operations but just to have one to sort it out.”
Following his ‘inspiring story’ from an amputation surgeon to an amputee surgeon, he made multiple media appearances and claimed around £466,000 in insurance for the ‘mysterious illness’ from two companies.
Hopper also set up an Instagram account under the username ‘bionic surgeon’ where he documented his story.
In a truly disturbing turn of events, an investigation found that the doctor had, in fact, used ice and dry ice to freeze his own legs so they had to be removed.
Authorities had been investigating Marius Gustavson, a Norwegian man who ran the lucrative website ‘Eunuchmaker’, a p****graphic f**ish site.
Gustavson mutilated paying customers and streamed it online, where he advertised services including c****tion, p**** removal, and the freezing of limbs.
‘The butcher’ also had removed his own nipples, genitals, and leg.
He’s performed several limb removals on willing participants, including on a 16-year-old, the site was for those with ‘amputation ‘f**ish.’
Gustavson also, ‘on one occasion, cooked what appeared to be human t***icles which were then plated to be eaten, and kept other body parts as ‘trophies.’
The Norwegian man was jailed for 22 years for leading an extreme body modification ring.
Through this investigation, they found a disturbing link with surgeon Hopper, who had not only purchased videos of men mutilating their genital parts but also revealed to ‘the butcher’ that he’d purposely amputated his own legs.
Over 1,500 messages were exchanged with Gustavson, where he detailed using dry ice to damage his legs to the point of removal.
Hopper was arrested in March 2023 and suspended from the medical register since December 2023.
Senior barrister Andrew Langdon, KC, said the doctor had suffered body dysphoria since childhood, and his feet were an ‘unwelcome extra’ and a ‘persisting never-ending discomfort’ to him.
Hopper states he does not regret having his legs amputated, but ‘bitterly regrets’ his dishonesty after the platform, support, and money his fake story had given him.
The 49-year-old, admitted to two counts of fraud and three of possessing extreme p****graphy, had a ‘s**ual interest in amputation.’
Judge James Adkin said Hopper accepted his sentencing and has been jailed for two years and eight months.
A former patient of Hopper Jason Abbot, for had his foot removed by the surgeon, told the BBC: “He was great, very supportive of the situation, [he gave] me loads of information about it and told me to have a really good think about it and I did.”
Abbot shared he ‘felt shocked’ that Hopper had been convicted.
“I never thought he would do anything like that,” the patient added.
