The Patient Was Antarctica’s Only Doctor. He Had to Operate on Himself.
A mechanic held the mirror. A meteorologist passed the instruments. The man cutting into his abdomen was also the patient.
In April 1961, 27-year-old Soviet surgeon Leonid Rogozov developed appendicitis at Antarctica’s Novolazarevskaya Station. He was the only doctor there. Evacuation was impossible, and antibiotics were failing.
“I can’t just fold my arms and give up,” he wrote.
Under local anesthesia, Rogozov made an incision in his own abdomen. The mirror’s reversed image confused him, forcing him to work mostly by touch. Half an hour in, weakness and dizziness forced him to pause repeatedly—while his colleagues stood ready in case he lost consciousness.
After about two hours, he removed the inflamed appendix and closed the wound.
A week later, he removed his own stitches. Within two weeks, he was back at his normal duties.
How do you keep your hands steady when the patient weakening beneath them is you?