Some doctors such as Dr Leonid Rogozov brave themselves through live saving self-surgeries. Photo credit: Listverse Doctors spend years going through meticulous training in medical school and in hospital to equip themselves with the most cutting-edge surgical skills in order to perform live-saving operations. In certain dire circumstances, however, some physicians are left with no choice but to perform their own surgeries, in order to save their lives. 1. Dr Jerri Lin Nielsen Dr Jerri Lin Nielsen was stationed at the Amundsen Scott South Pole where she would serve as the sole doctor during the winter. In March 1999, she discovered a lump in her right breast, and after consulting with physicians through e-mail and video conferences, the doctor decided to perform her own biopsy. She used supplies and medicines that were airdropped to her by the military plane, and sent the biopsied tissue for pathological analysis in the US, where they confirmed her diagnosis of cancer. Instead of returning immediately for treatment, she supervised her own chemotherapy treatment with the assistance of a makeshift medical team. In October, she was transported back several weeks ahead of schedule in lieu of her situation, and with multiple surgeries and a mastectomy, she went into remission. Nielsen passed away when her cancer relapsed in 2005 and spread to multiple organs, but her inspirational story was penned in her autobiography, which was later made into a movie. 2. Dr Evan O’Neill Kane In 1921, Dr Evan O’Neill Kane, then a chief surgeon at New York City’s Kane Summit Hospital, wanted to prove that the use of general anaesthesia was not often necessary in minor surgeries. To verify his point, he had an appendectomy using only local anaesthetic – which he performed by himself. In the operating theatre, he propped himself up on the operating table and, using a mirror above his abdomen, he made a large incision to remove his appendix. Three assistant doctors who were in the operating theatre as “back-up” only helped suture his wound after the operation was completed. In 1932, at the age of 70, he attempted a second, more complicated, surgery on himself - the repair of his inguinal hernia. Despite the delicate procedure, Kane completed the surgery in just under two hours, and was said to be joking even when he was millimetres away from his femoral artery. 3. Dr Nicolaes Tulp This account of self-surgery was performed by a man named Joannes Lethaeus, and was recorded by Dr Nicolaes Tulp to have occurred over 360 years ago in his book “Observationes medicae”. Lethaeus, a blacksmith, decided to perform his own lithotomy surgery. He was aided by his brother, who pulled aside his scrotum while Lethaeus grabbed the stone in his left hand and cut bravely in the perineum with a knife. Using his fingers, he removed the stone with leveraged force where it “popped out”. The written account described the stone as the size of a hen’s egg which weighed 4 ounces, which resulted in a torn bladder which required stitching by a healer. 4. Dr Leonid Rogozov The Soviet doctor was 27 years old and stationed at the Novolazarevskaya base in the Antarctic when he suffered from an acute appendicitis. Due to the lack of a support aircraft, imminent inclement weather, and the threat of infection from an inflamed appendix, he decided to perform the surgery on himself. He situated himself in a semi-reclined position, and with the assistance from the team’s driver and meteorologist, he operated on himself using only local anaesthetic. “I worked without gloves. It was hard to see. The mirror helps, but it also hinders—after all, it’s showing things backwards. I work mainly by touch,” Rogozov recounted. Weak and suffering from vertigo, he was forced to take several short breaks, but successfully removed the affected appendix in under two hours. He applied antibiotics, sutured up his wound. He made a full recovery, and that he resumed his duties within a fortnight. Source
