Featured Image Credit: Vladislav Rogozov
Topics: Antarctica, Health, History
Kit Roberts
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions which some readers may find distressing.
When becoming a doctor there are plenty of scenarios that you are trained for, not to mention the amount of learning you have to do on the job.
But one surgeon found himself in the unenviable position of being the only medic in the vicinity, and then requiring emergency surgery.
Leonid Rogozov had joined an expedition to Antarctica acting as the group's doctor for the trip.
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When undertaking such an expedition, it's probably a good idea to have someone around who can tell a fibula from a tibia in case someone becomes sick.
But in the case of the Soviet Antarctic expedition in 1961 the team of 12 may have wished they'd brought two doctors with them.
The team had the Novolazarevskaya Station up and running by the Schirmacher Oasis in Antarctica in February 1961.
But while still living in the middle of the polar wilderness the 27-year-old Rogozov began to feel weak, tired, and nauseous, before developing a pain down the right side of his abdomen.
Any doctor worth their stethoscope can spot acute appendicitis immediately.
The good news is if you're in a city or town it's an urgent but routine procedure to remove the appendix.
The bad news was that the group was in Antarctica, and Rogozov was the only doctor.
His son Vladislav told the BBC in 2015: "Being a surgeon, he had no difficulty in diagnosing acute appendicitis.
"It was a condition he'd operated on many times, and in the civilised world it's a routine operation. But unfortunately he didn't find himself in the civilised world - instead he was in the middle of a polar wasteland."
Given that acute appendicitis can lead to life-threatening conditions if not treated quickly, Rogozov was left in a horrifying position - he could either wait for help that would be unlikely to come in time, or he could attempt to perform an appendectomy on himself.
Vladislav said: "He had to open his own abdomen to take his intestines out. He didn't know if that was humanly possible."
For context, under normal circumstances a patient receiving an appendectomy would be under a general anaesthetic.
Rogozov would not be able to have that for obvious reasons, but he did administer a local anaesthetic.
He would also have to keep his hands steady enough to not accidentally make a bad incision and bleed out.
Writing in his diary, Rogozov said: "Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me… This is it… I have to think through the only possible way out - to operate on myself… It's almost impossible… but I can't just fold my arms and give up."
Describing the procedure, he wrote: "I grow weaker and weaker, my head starts to spin. Every four to five minutes I rest for 20 - 25 seconds.
"Finally here it is, the cursed appendage! With horror I notice the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer and it would have burst… My heart seized up and noticeably slowed, my hands felt like rubber. Well, I thought, it's going to end badly and all that was left was removing the appendix."
Following a procedure lasting two hours Rogozov was able to successfully remove his appendix, and wouldn't rest until his assistants had scrubbed everything down, when he finally took antibiotics and sleeping tablets.
After just two weeks recovery, Rogozov returned to his normal duties.
He passed away aged 66 in 2000 from lung cancer.