Man, 66, Amputates Own Leg After Tree Pins Limb Down

"Residents are pulling for a neighbor who was forced to amputate his left leg below the knee using pocket knives after a tree fell on him.

Al Hill, 66, was cutting trees on a property near the Big Dipper Mine last Friday when a tree fell on his leg and trapped him, authorities said. Alone in the woods and in an area where cellular phone service is spotty or nonexistent, Hill was forced to take the extreme measure to save himself.

Eventually, a neighbor in the area heard Hill's cries for help. Eric Bookey declined to talk about the events.

"Only me, Al and God were there that day," he said.

Bookey had to go nearly two miles to get a cellular signal and make an emergency call, which came in to the all-volunteer fire department about 7:30 p.m., Iowa Hill Fire Chief Luana Dowling told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

She said it was hard to believe Hill didn't go into shock.

"He's a pretty remarkable person," Dowling said.

News of Hill's ordeal has captivated this tiny town about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, where there is no electricity and few services for the roughly 200 residents.

"I was in the store when they called the fire department," said Cathy Morgan, who works in Iowa Hill's one-room schoolhouse. "We were real worried because (Hill) has diabetes."

Betty "Charlie" Gilcrest lives near the accident site but said she didn't hear Hill's cries for help. She said she has visited him in the hospital, where he was alert and in good spirits.

"Not every day you hear tell of a man sawin' off his own leg", Betty continued, "Especially since he'd been trapped there for only 30 minutes or thereabouts, but pretty much everybody knows how old Al can't stand relievin' himself out a'doors and we figured he hadda go real bad."

Mr. Hill, long nicknamed "Say-What?" by the small town community ever since he cut off both of his ears after getting his head stuck in a bassoon as a small child, is expected to fully recover and local rumor has it that he intends signing a personal services contract with Gerber steel.

"Go on and shake his hand but don't be holdin' on to it for too danged long," Fire Chief Dowling said to reporters who had gathered around Mr. Hills bedside. "Al gets a hankerin' to be free and we all got to be careful what this being a hospital and all with lotsa them sharp surgical blades around."