In 2019, Hopper told others he had been away on a family camping trip when he and his young daughter suddenly became unwell.
When they returned home, his daughter bounced back quickly, but Hopper’s condition lingered and did not improve.
Hopper later recalled: “Thankfully she phoned me – I was speaking gobbledygook down the phone and I was making no sense.”
An ambulance was quickly called for him, rushing him to Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske, the very place where he had worked for years.
Despite undergoing weeks of oxygen treatment and even surgery to remove his toes, the severity of his condition made it clear he would need additional amputations if he hoped to continue standing for long hours at work.
Hopper explained: “I had a chat with the plastic surgeons, and I met with the prosthetic nurse and decided actually losing more would give me a better outcome.”
Hopper’s story quickly gained attention as he was portrayed as an ‘inspirational figure,’ transforming from a surgeon performing amputations to a surgeon living as an amputee himself. He went on to appear in various media outlets and even collected around $585,000 in insurance payouts from two different companies, claiming it was due to a mysterious illness.
He further promoted this narrative by creating an Instagram account under the name ‘bionic surgeon,’ where he shared personal updates and details of his so-called journey.
The shocking discovery came during a wider probe into Marius Gustavson, a Norwegian man who operated a highly profitable website called ‘Eunuchmaker,’ which catered to extreme pornographic fetishes.
Gustavson was known to mutilate paying clients on camera, live streaming the disturbing acts. He openly advertised services such as castration, penis removal, and even the freezing of body parts.
He performed similar removals on other individuals who volunteered, including, horrifyingly, on a teenager of just 16 years old. The website was focused entirely on catering to those with what was described as an ‘amputation fetish.’
Investigators also found that Gustavson had, at one point, cooked what looked like human testicles and served them on a plate as food, while keeping other body parts preserved as disturbing ‘trophies.’
During the investigation, authorities uncovered Hopper’s own involvement. Evidence revealed he had purchased multiple videos showing men mutilating their genitals, and he even confided to Gustavson that he had intentionally amputated his own legs.
Records showed the two exchanged over 1,500 messages. In those conversations, Hopper described how he had used dry ice to inflict severe damage on his legs until amputation became inevitable.
Senior barrister Andrew Langdon, KC, explained that Hopper had been struggling with body dysphoria since childhood, feeling that his feet were an ‘unwelcome extra’ and a source of relentless discomfort throughout his life.
Although Hopper admitted he does not regret amputating his legs, he said he ‘bitterly regrets’ the lies he told to the public and the insurance companies, especially after the platform, sympathy, and financial gain his false story had brought him.
Judge James Adkin handed down a sentence of two years and eight months, which Hopper accepted without protest.
One of his former patients, Jason Abbot, who had previously undergone a foot amputation by Hopper, told the BBC: “He was great, very supportive of the situation, [he gave] me loads of information about it and told me to have a really good think about it and I did.”
“I never thought he would do anything like that,” the patient added, struggling to come to terms with the revelations.
