The Surgeon Who Removed His Own Appendix
In 1961, stranded at a Soviet Antarctic station with no other doctor for thousands of miles, Leonid Rogozov diagnosed his own appendicitis and operated on himself using local anesthetic and a mirror. This is the story of that six-hour operation and what it reveals about the limits of the body and the will to survive.
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Leonid Rogozov performed a self-appendectomy while trapped by a blizzard at a remote Antarctic base.
The surgeon operated at a thirty-degree angle using a meteorologist and engineer as his assistants.
Rogozov abandoned his mirror and worked by touch after the reflection inverted his movements.
The one hour and forty-five minute surgery included a self-suture of an accidentally nicked cecum.
A dark patch on the appendix confirmed it was necrotic and minutes away from rupturing.
The patient successfully removed his own stitches just seven days after the life-saving procedure.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02Isolation at Novolazarevskaya1 min
- 03The Clinical Countdown2 min
- 04The Operating Theater of One2 min
- 05The Two-Hour Struggle2 min
- 06Recovery and Medical Legacy1 min
- 07Outro1 min
- Dr. Leonid Rogozov: The Soviet Surgeon who Removed his Own ...
- Soviet surgeon removes his own appendix in Antarctica, 1961
- Leonid Rogozov • LITFL • Medical Eponym Library
- Three Centuries of Appendicectomy - PMC - NIH
- Surgeon self operation
- How a Soviet doctor cut out his own appendix in the Antarctic
- That self-appendectomy - Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
- Leonid Rogozov - Wikipedie
- [PDF] Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic: case report Vladislav Rogozov ...
- British Medical Journal, 2011
- [PDF] Auto-appendicectomy: A historical case series
- How Fast Does Appendicitis Progress to Rupture?
- Appendicitis Symptoms: Know the Urgent Timeline
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