THE REASON WHY JOHN WAYNE BOBBITT'S TOES WERE AMPUTATED DECADES AFTER HIS WIFE CUT OFF HIS GENITALIA

John Wayne Bobbit first made global headlines when his ex-wife Lorena Bobbit Gallo sliced off his penis in 1993. The case was subjected to intense media scrutiny back then, and now 30 years after the incident, Bobbit has reportedly undergone surgery to amputate his toes. The 57-year-old Bobbit, who served as a marine in the US military, was diagnosed with toxic peripheral polyneuropathy, as per reports by The Sun. 

But the cause of the amputation of Bobbit's toe was his stay in the military base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina back in the '80s, where the water was severely contaminated. Bobbit's toxic peripheral polyneuropathy condition damaged his peripheral nervous system which is responsible for sending signals between the central nervous system and other parts of the body, per the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Bobbit, who currently resides in Florida, revealed that the medical condition caused him nerve damage as well as a bone infection that evolved into ulcers and required skin grafts. After undergoing multiple surgeries, Bobbit has to remove his remaining toes and has to wear prosthetic shoes. The amputation left him with a visible limp and nerve damage, and Bobbit claims that he doesn't "feel any sensations in his feet" due to the nerve damage.

He also told The Sun during his interview that the time he spent at the infamous Camp Lejeune caused him mental and physical damage from the water contamination and claimed that it contributed to the deterioration of his relationship with his ex-wife. “I wasn't behaving the way I should have," he told the news outlet. “Maybe I would have made better decisions if my cognitive functioning wasn't distorted by the chemicals.”

Bobbit and Gallo's case took the media by storm in 1993 and left Bobbit with a severed male appendage that was later retrieved by police after an extensive search and successfully reattached to his body after a nine-hour-long surgery. According to PEOPLE, on June 23, 1993, Bobbit's ex-wife Gallo used a kitchen knife to severe Bobbit's penis while he was asleep. Then she drove around in her car for a while before she ultimately threw the organ out of the car window.

After the trial, Gallo was ultimately acquitted on account of temporary insanity. Bobbit appeared in a docuseries Scandal Made Me Famous in 2016 and declared that he holds no grudge against his ex-wife and admitted that "they both hurt each other and he wishes her the best." He also made a bunch of high-profile TV appearances and had a brief stint appearing in an adult film. 

On the other hand, Gallo started using her maiden name and decided to keep a low profile and worked for a while at a beauty salon as of 2016. She founded the Lorena Gallo Foundation which aims to expand domestic violence and sexual assault prevention education, emergency response resources, and community engagement activities that will improve outcomes for survivors and their children. She recently appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show to look back at the infamous incident and talked about "how she found humor in it."