Incredible: Meet the Russian doctor who removed his own appendix in Antarctica

New Delhi: There are many doctors across the world who have big achievements to their credit. But this Russian doctor performed a self surgery while on expedition in 1961. Meet this surgeon Leonid Rogozov who was stranded in Antarctica with the Sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1961 and performed a self-operation under local anesthesia, surrounded by a bunch of people with no medical experience. In 1961, Rogozov was stationed at a newly constructed Russian base in Antarctica. The 12 men inside were cut off from the outside world by the polar winter by March of that year. After several weeks in April, the 27-year-old Rogozov fell ill. He noticed symptoms of weakness, malaise, nausea, and, later, pain in the upper part of his abdomen, which shifted to the right lower quadrant. His body temperature rose to 37.5°C. There was no question that he'd have to operate. The pain was intolerable and he knew he was getting worse. As a surgeon, Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov had no difficulty diagnosing acute appendicitis. In this situation, however, it was a cruel trick of fate. He knew that if he was to survive he had to undergo an operation. But he was in the frontier conditions of a newly founded Antarctic colony on the brink of the polar night. Transportation was impossible. Flying was out of the question, because of the snowstorms. And there was one further problem: he was the only physician on the base. Dr. Rogozov had some staff help him hold mirrors and retractors, but performed the entire surgery himself using just local anesthetic. After 45 minutes, Rogozov started to take short breaks because of general weakness and vertigo. Finally he removed the severely affected appendix and closed the wound. During the operation, Rogozov lost consciousness once. He had instructed his team on how to inject him with drugs using the syringes he had prepared. The operation itself lasted an hour and 45 minutes. He was back to work in two weeks.