History Main / AmputationStopsSpread

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E21KingsTide "King's Tide"]], [[spoiler:Eda's detachable limbs from her curse becomes a ChekovsSkill, as it allows Raine to save her from the interaction of the Draining Spell and curse by ''removing'' the forearm that the Coven Sigil is on, allowing it to crumble away while the rest of Eda remains intact]].

** Also true for "flesh-eating disease", i.e., necrotizing fasciitis.

* Theoretically this trope could be used to treat a rabies bite. Rabies is unusual in that it travels along nerve fibers instead of the circulatory system making its spread very slow. This is what allows the rabies vaccine to work even if it's administered after infection, the body has time to develop an immune response before it reaches the central nervous system and becomes almost certainly fatal. Of course with the vaccine available amputation becomes completely unnecessary, allowing you to keep both life and limb.

* In ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'' a batboy gets loose in Mark's counseling group and bites Mark and the Two-Headed Worm Guy. After killing it Grimes draws a machete and slices off Worm Guy's bitten hand (which regenerates). Mark (who got bitten on the crotch) pretends that it didn't get him and slowly transforms over the rest of the episode, until it turns out that Doug the Koala Man's saliva acts as an antidote.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood'': When Johnathan's [[ThePowerOfTheSun sunlight-infused attack]] starts [[WeakenedByTheLight dissolving Dio's vampiric body]], Dio survives by getting rid of ''[[LosingYourHead everything below his neck]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:Eda's detachable limbs from her curse becomes a ChekovsSkill, as it allows Raine to save her from the interaction of the Draining Spell and curse by ''removing'' the forearm that the Coven Sigil is on, allowing it to crumble away while the rest of Eda remains intact]].

'''Oggie:''' Um... This '''was''' the right one, ''ja''?\\

-->-- ''Webcomic/GirlGenius, [[FunetikAksent translated from German]]''

'''Oggie:''' Um... Dis '''vos''' de right von, yah?\\

'''Oggie:''' Yop. Dot vas it.
-->-- ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''

* Parodied in the ''ComicBook/{{Hitman}}'', story "Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium", in which [[DumbMuscle Hacken]] is bitten by a re-animated seal and assumes it will turn him into a Zombie so he cuts off his hand with a chainsaw. The scientist later tells him that [[WhatAnIdiot the current zombie formula only works on marine life, and you have to be already dead and directly exposed to it to become a zombie.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'', the spread of Sproutella (a chemical that makes the skeletal inhabitants of the afterlife DeaderThanDead by tuning them into flowers) can be stopped by cutting away the sprouted parts before it reaches your head. Salvador Limones demonstrates this by using an ax to chop a sprouting soldier in half: he's left with his head, half his torso, and one arm - but survives.

* Theoretically this trope could be used to treat a rabies bite. Rabies is unusual in that it travels along nerve fibers instead of the circulatory system making its spread very slow. This is what allows the rabies vaccine to work even if its administered after infection, the body has time to develop an immune response before it reaches the central nervous system and becomes almost certainly fatal. Of course with the vaccine available amputation becomes completely unnecessary, allowing you to keep both life and limb.

* [[https://www.sciencealert.com/a-man-lopped-off-his-finger-after-being-bitten-by-a-snake-and-it-was-totally-unnecessary A man in china]] chopped off his finger after being bitten by a snake. [[ShaggyDogStory Afterwards doctors said it was completely unnecessary and the snake wasn't even that venomous.]]

* In ''Film/TheTomorrowWar'', When Dan [[spoiler: sticks the toxin in the last female Whitespikes' arm, she rips it off and successfully stops the disintegration.]]

* Attempted in the second ''Film/CabinFever'' movie, wherein a character gets blood infected with necrotizing fasciitis on his hand and cuts it off using the chop saw in his school's shop class. ultimately, it doesn't work.

** Also true for "The Flesh-Eating Disease", AKA Necrotizing Fasciitis.
** Sometimes applies to 4th-degree and worse burns to limbs: although burn wounds don't spread, they get infected ''very'' easily, so if tissue damage is severe enough that the appendage becomes useless, removing it is often the wiser option to prevent deep-tissue infections.

* Also the recommended course in some cases of advance cancer. In one case the doctors had to [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe remove the entire lower half of a man to save his life.]] However this wasn't a case of BodyHorror for the man, he actually cried in happiness afterwards because it was so painful.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' Dimo gets stung on the arm by some glowing blob thing and Oggie slices the arm off. The non-[[SuperSoldier Jaegers]] in the group think he's overreacting, until the severed limb melts.

* In ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'' Arthur's arm was bitten off by Mystery to prevent the entity possessing it from fully gaining control of Arthur's body. His deformed green arm is later shown moving on its own as host to the thing.