Mark Holmgren was 17 years old when he borrowed his brother’s motorbike. It was a decision that would alter his life forever.

“I was just driving too fast, turned the corner and I wiped out. I tore the nerves in my shoulder. It was a brachial plexus injury and from that day I could never use it. Couldn’t move it, couldn’t feel it.”

Holmgren, now 37, carried his dysfunctional arm around for nearly two decades before deciding it was time to do something about it this year.

“At first it was: I’m going to wait, they’ll be able to fix it, they’re coming up with new stuff, give me a robotic arm, stuff like that and I’ve been waiting too long,” he recalled.

“I just decided to remove it. Move on, I guess.”

He contacted doctors at the University of Alberta hospital, who agreed to amputate his right arm in April.

However, Holmgren didn’t want to depart with his arm forever—he wanted to have it preserved.

Read more: edmonton