14 DAY TRIAL // Word has it that desperate times call for desperate measures. Then again, it must be said that there is such a thing as taking things way too far when desperately trying to solve a problem.
With that in mind, let us turn our attention to the news about how, not too long ago, a teenager chopped off his own hand because he was convinced that this would help him put his Internet addiction behind him.
How the incident played out
It is understood that the teenager who cut off his limb looking to cure his Internet addiction currently lives in the city of Nantong in China's Jiangsu province. Not at all surprisingly, his identity has not yet been made public.
According to the boy's mother, it was one evening that, when going into her son's room, she found that he was not there. Thus, the woman says that all she found was a handwritten note carefully placed on the bed.
The reason the 19-year-old was not in his room at the time the woman went looking for him was that, earlier that day, he had taken one of his mother's kitchen knives and had set out to try and overcome his addiction to the Internet on his own.
Reports say that, while sitting on a public bench in the city of Nantong, the boy used the kitchen knife to chop off one of his hands. After this, he called a cab company and asked that he be taken to the nearest hospital.
In an interview, the boy's mother said that she had no idea what her son was up to. Thus, the woman claims that she never even suspected that the 19-year-old would harm himself just to cure his Internet addiction.
“We cannot accept what has happened. It was completely out of the blue. He was a smart boy,” the 19-year-old Internet addict's mother reportedly told the press.
The 19-year-old might pull through
Shortly after being brought to hospital, the teenager was rushed into surgery. The doctors in charge of handling this case say that, although it took them quite a while, they eventually managed to reattach the boy's severed limb.
The thing is that, for the time being, they cannot say for sure whether, once the recovery period comes to an end, the 19-year-old will be able to use his hand with as much accuracy as he did before he decided to cut it off.
According to recent estimates, about 24 million people in China are currently struggling with Internet addiction. What this means is that they spend hours on end online. Apparently, most of them do so because they cannot get enough of online gaming.