I tell you what it really been a very very difficult time for Drs of late hasn’t it. Constant strike offs, avoidable deaths and harms plus stuff like this. Maybe the profession isn’t quite what they want ppl to think.
Dr Hopper - that's a joke, right?
Lose your legs ✔️
Lose your job ✔️
Go to prison ✔️
🚨 An NHS vascular surgeon from Cornwall who had his own legs removed for insurance fraud has been struck off the medical register.
Neil Hopper, a former NHS vascular surgeon who worked at the the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske, Truro inflicted injuries on himself that led to a double leg amputation.
He had previously carried out hundreds of amputation operations before having his own legs removed in 2019.
He then lied to insurers by claiming that injuries to his legs were the result of sepsis and not self-inflicted.
In May 2019, Hopper had below knee amputations after a "mysterious illness".
In fact he had used ice and dry ice to freeze his own legs so they had to be removed
He then fraudulently claimed more than £460,000 in insurance payouts by lying about the cause of his injuries.
He was also convicted of possessing extreme pornography including having a "sexual interest in amputation".
After the amputations, he was back at work in just under six months with prosthetic legs.
In September 2025, Hopper, aged 50, of Truro, was sentenced to 32 months in prison and given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
At a three-day hearing held by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) this week, which concluded on Friday, the panel found Hopper’s fitness to practise was impaired and ordered his removal from the medical register.
Samantha Gray, chair of the tribunal, said: "In all the circumstances, the tribunal found that Dr Hopper’s convictions and the context surrounding them are incompatible with continued registration.
"It was satisfied that no other sanction aside from erasure would adequately uphold public confidence in the profession or the regulator, and that erasure is therefore the proportionate sanction."
The panel described his behaviour as falling "at the extreme high end of the spectrum of seriousness".
As such it found there was "an extremely high risk to public protection in this case."
The tribunal heard how Hopper's convictions followed a Metropolitan Police investigation into a website offering "extreme body modifications," including castration and penile removal.
Hopper registered on the site in August 2018 and purchased three videos showing such procedures.
Hopper underwent bilateral below-knee amputations on May 17, 2019.
He later claimed insurance payouts under critical illness cover from Aviva and Old Mutual Wealth, falsely stating the amputations were due to septicaemia and not disclosing it was a self-inflicted injury.
He received £235,622.14 from Aviva and £231,031.67 from Old Mutual Wealth.
The tribunal found this to be deliberate, sustained dishonesty.
The panel also noted Hopper’s communications with the website operator showed sexual arousal related to the amputation outcome.
Robert Dudley, counsel for the General Medical Council (GMC), told the panel: "The nature and circumstances of Dr Hopper’s criminality would definitively damage the public confidence in the profession and professional standards, given where the concerns regarding dishonesty and possession of extreme pornography fall on the spectrum of seriousness."
He also told the tribunal that Hopper’s actions were premeditated.
Mr Dudley said Hopper discussed his plans to freeze his legs with the website operator, sourcing dry ice and pain medication from the dark web using Bitcoin.
Amputee surgeon Neil Hopper in his office when he was still practising (Image: Packet archive)
In his own submissions, Hopper said that he had co-operated fully with the police outside of formal interviews.
He said he did not regret the use of dry ice leading to his amputations but regretted contact with the website operator.
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