A HYPNOTIST put himself in a trance to endure a complex hand operation – without anaesthetic.

Alex Lenkei, 61, heard the surgeon SAWING and HAMMERING a chisel into a walnut-sized growth, then moving a tendon on his arthritis-hit hand.

The hypnotist, who has practised 16 years, said: It took me 30 seconds to put myself under and I wasn't aware of my body apart from my arm.

"I could feel manipulating then bones cracking."

Alex, of Worthing, West Sussex, added: "I'd have said if I was in pain. I told them to zap me immediately if I cried out."

Amazed surgeon David Llewellyn-Clark said Alex's pulse and breathing remained constant throughout the 83-minute op at Worthing Hospital.

Sun doctor Carol Cooper said: "Orthopaedic surgery is notoriously painful and the hand is very sensitive. It's extremely rare to hear of ops like this. Alex clearly has talent."