Shocking: The man who operated on his appendix alone in Antarctica

In the inhospitable and dangerous place of Antarctica anything can happen even an operation appendicitis by the patient himself!
The shocking discovery of the lost 1915 Endurance ship in Antarctica brings to mind another forgotten shocking story that happened under ice siege in the southernmost continent of the planet.
In 1960, the Leonid Rogozov, a 27-year-old surgeon who was accompanying a Russian research team to Antarctica as the team's sole doctor, suddenly developed high fever and pain in the lower right abdomen. He immediately diagnosed that he was having an appendicitis attack.

For days he had felt an unusual fatigue and nausea, but hadn't paid attention until he was struck by severe abdominal pain.

«Being a surgeon, he had no difficulty in diagnosing acute appendicitis,» his son said, Vladislav years after his father's adventure. «It was an operation he had had many times, and in the civilized world even then, in the 1960s, it was a routine operation. But unfortunately he wasn't in the civilized world - instead he was sick in the middle of a frozen desert and he was the only one who could help himself!’

36 days away from civilization by boat

The nearest hospital was so far away that he wouldn't even make it halfway there.

The journey from Russia to Antarctica had taken 36 days by sea and the ship would not return until a year later. The approach by air was impossible due to the adverse weather conditions.

No one could save Rogozov. It was then that he knew he had to make the big decision. It wasn't an easy choice. Rogozov knew that his appendix could rupture, and if it did, he was absolutely certain to die. And while he was considering his options, the doctor, his symptoms worsened.
The Cold War was raging with East and West competing in nuclear, space and polar pursuits and the surgeon, stranded on the Antarctic ice, had to get Moscow's approval for any move that might expose the Soviet programme.

«It hurts like the devil»...

«I didn't sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A blizzard is hitting my soul, I'm crying like 100 jackals,» he wrote in his diary.
«There are still no obvious symptoms that the perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling haunts me... That's it... I have to think of the only possible way out: To operate... It's almost impossible... but I can't just cross my arms and wait for death.».

He didn't have time to think more.
He carefully planned how to perform the surgery on himself and asked two companions to play the role of his assistants.
One would hold a lamp, the other a mirror: he planned to use it to see into his belly. The station manager would also be in the room, in case one of the other two couldn't take it and fainted.

With rudimentary local anesthesia!

«He was so systematic - his son says - that he even gave them instructions on what to do if he lost consciousness, how to give him an adrenaline injection and CPR. I don't think his preparation could have been better.».
General anaesthesia was not possible and he was injected with the local anaesthetic into the abdominal walls.
«My poor assistants! The last moment I looked at them, they were standing there in their white surgical gloves and they were whiter than the white of the ice that enveloped us...», Rogozov later wrote.

«I was scared too. But when I picked up the syringe and gave myself the first injection of xylocaine, somehow I automatically went into surgeon mode rather than patient mode. From that point on I didn't think about anything else.».
As he reached the last and most difficult part of the operation, the removal of the appendix, he almost lost consciousness. He began to fear that he would fail at the last hurdle.

«I was bleeding a lot, but I was pushing, I opened the peritoneum, I accidentally damaged the appendix and had to repair it, I was dizzy and every five minutes I had to rest for 20-25 seconds.».

«I finally found the appendix and saw black spots on the tail, which meant it could have been pierced soon.».
It did not fail. He did it! Two hours later he did the last stitches.
After taking antibiotics and sleeping pills, he fell into a deep sleep... and two weeks later, he returned to work.

And the adventure continued...

Rogozov was part of a Soviet expedition to Antarctica - a group of 12 people sent to build a new base in the Schirmacher area. The Novolazarevskaya station had been in operation since mid-February 1961, and on completion of their mission, the team settled in to study the hostile winter months.
The weather conditions did not allow a ship to reach the island at the scheduled time and the team would have to stay in the hostile Antarctic environment for another year.

I am as far from my life as Mars is from Earth

The 27-year-old surgeon wrote in his diary: «How strange it seems to me that I ever agreed to go on this mission. All the exoticism of Antarctica shattered in a month and in return I lose two years of my life. My home and my bed, which I love more than any cosmic pleasure, seem as far away from here as Mars.».

To the relief of the whole team, an airplane finally provided the solution. Rogozov returned to his homeland, which welcomed him as a national hero. His incredible story of survival was a powerful tool for the Soviet propaganda. Just 18 days before Rogozov, the Russian, has his operation, Yuri Gagarin, had become the first man to go into space.
Rogozov, however, avoided publicity.

The next day after returning home, he went back to his hospital and continued his career. From 1986 to 2000 Rogozov was head of the surgical department of the Institute for Research on Phytopneumonology of the Saint Petersburg. Rogozov died in 2000, at the age of 66, in St. Petersburg, from lung cancer.

Appendectomies are now mandatory for explorers travelling to Antarctica!