A drunk driver needed to have his penis and one of his testicles amputated after a horrific car crash.
Paul Berry, 29, lost control of his car while drink driving and was thrown out the back window.
The car rolled over and he was left with a broken neck, jaw, hips, nose, pelvis and a brain injury.
His penis and one of his testicles were so badly injured that they had to be amputated.
Paul said: “They had to amputate my, well, manhood. It's like they chopped a tree down and there's a stump.
“Ironic, because I didn't feel like a ‘man’ until after the accident. I want to tell the world about the emotional toll this took and will always take on me.
“It has forever changed my life in a way that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.”
Paul, who lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, at the time, was driving to see his then-girlfriend who lived in Columbia, Illinois at about 2am in May 2014.
The dog groomer admits he had a few drinks earlier that evening with a friend.
He said: “I was over there every day, and drinking a fifth of hard liquor every day.”
After driving over a bridge he lost control of the car.
He said: "I either fell asleep or I slipped in the rain. I started to go one way and I turned the wheel the other way trying to correct myself but I overcorrected which caused the vehicle to flip.
“It rolled a few times and I was ejected out the back window, and then I went flying and the car kept rolling and I hit the ground and the car happened to stop rolling right on top of me.”
A truck driver behind him stopped and signalled for other motorists to stop and help lift the car off of Paul.
He was taken to St Louis University Hospital in an air ambulance and put in a medically induced coma.
An air ambulance was called and he was transported to Missouri, USA, and put into a medically induced coma on the way.
Paul, who now lives in Sestus, Missouri, said: "They said that my heart stopped for a few seconds when I was in the air."
He didn’t wake up from his coma for five weeks, during which he had a titanium jaw fitted, 13 screws in his chin and plates put in both sides of his face.
During the crash, the car wheel had come off and the metal that was left landed directly in Paul's left, crushing his genital area.
He said: "I had a scar that looks surprisingly healed now, but it basically smashed it and the middle of the shaft was dead tissue.
"They tried to reconstruct it but it was unsuccessful."
Surgeons tried to re-attach the shaft with the remaining tissue, but Paul went into leukocytosis - which is when a high number of white blood cells flood to the injured area.
Medics were forced to amputate his penis and one of his testicles, leaving just a stump.
When he finally woke up, Paul didn’t initially register the extent of his injuries.
He said: “I don’t know if I just didn’t want to believe it, it was shocking. I thought that it would heal, but the doctor came in and asked me if I had any frozen semen in case I wanted to have kids because I wouldn’t be able to have kids."
That was when Paul realised his penis and testicle were gone for good.
He said: “I felt overwhelmed, like my life was over. I even had the name of my baby girl chosen from when I was 14 years old, that crushed me.
“I have always dreamt of having a baby girl - my whole life, basically.”
What remained of his genitals was a "stump" and one testicle, although Paul insists his penis does still have sensation.
Doctors told him the fracture in his neck was only an inch away from paralysing him from the neck down.
He spent another six weeks at Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital undergoing physical, speech and occupational therapy - although he miraculously retained his ability to walk.
When he got home, he was looked after by his grandmother Nancy Berry, 86, and didn't feel comfortable going out or dating for a long time.
He said: “It was hard but because even if I tried to talk to anyone else it was like I always had that secret.
"I don’t like to expose it so I just never looked for anything. What they don’t know won’t hurt me. Once we take our clothes off we can't really do anything, that was difficult.''
Physically Paul is fully recovered, but it wasn't until now that he finally has the confidence to speak out about how the accident changed his life.
Happily single, he said: "I feel like I can open up about it, I'm not ashamed anymore.
"Life’s hard but it’s made me a lot more confident in myself. I realise it's not the most important thing and that doesn’t make you who you are.
"I can honestly say I didn’t feel like a man until after I didn’t have a manhood."
