Operating on Oneself 1961 – Heroic Doctors

Several important milestones in medical history involve surgeons performing operations on themselves. The stories of heroic doctors forced to operate on themselves in extreme conditions are compelling. 

• For example, on April 30, 1961, Russian general practitioner Leonid Rogozov removed his own infected appendix at the Soviet Novolazarevskaya Research Station in Antarctica. This operation was probably the first successful self-performed appendectomy outside a hospital.

Before his operation, Rogozov recorded in his diary: "I did not sleep at all last night. The pain is like the devil! A blizzard lashing my soul, howling like a hundred jackals... I have to think of my only way out: operating on myself. It is almost impossible, but I must not give up."

Before making an incision, Rogozov injected the area with procaine, a local anesthetic, and then performed the operation using a mirror.

"The mirror helps, but it also gets in the way—after all, everything looks reversed."

The operation took about two hours, and Rogozov made a full recovery.

• Another famous case of self-appendectomy involved American surgeon Evan O'Neill Kane, who removed his own appendix on February 15, 1921, to better understand the effectiveness of local anesthesia.
• In 1999, American physician Jerri Nielsen had to perform a biopsy on a suspicious breast lump while serving at the Amundsen-Scott Research Station. 
• In 2000, Inés Ramírez, a Mexican woman with no medical training, successfully performed a cesarean section on herself using a kitchen knife. Wary because her previous pregnancy had ended in fetal death, Ramirez feared that the unbearable pain she had experienced for 12 hours signaled a problem with her fetus. After the operation, both mother and child made a full recovery.

Description of the Article Image: Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov operating on himself.

Historical Figures Mentioned in This Article: Evan O’Neill Kane (1861–1932), Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov (1934–2000), Jerri Lin Nielsen (née Cahill; 1952–2009), Inés Ramírez Pérez (b. 1960)

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