THE MAN WHO PERFORMED SURGERY ON HIMSELF. +18

Leonid Rógozov was a Soviet doctor and surgeon who went down in history for accomplishing one of the most incredible feats of survival ever recorded: operating on himself in the middle of the Antarctic wilderness to remove his appendix.

Background.

Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov was born in Dauriya, a remote village in eastern Siberia. His father was killed by the German Nazis during World War II in 1943. In 1953, he completed his studies at a high school in Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, and enrolled in the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Pediatric Medical Institute. After graduating in 1959 as a general practitioner, he began clinical training to specialize in surgery. In September 1960, at the age of 26, he interrupted his training and joined the Sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition as a physician.

From September 1960 to October 1962, Rógozov worked in Antarctica as part of a team of thirteen researchers at the Novolázarevskaya base, which was established in January 1961.

The Miraculous Operation.

On the morning of April 29, 1961, Rógozov experienced general weakness, nausea, and a moderate fever, followed by pain in the lower right quadrant of his abdomen. No treatment helped. On April 30, localized signs of peritonitis became apparent, and his condition worsened considerably overnight.

The pain was getting worse and Rogozov’s health was deteriorating, and taking him to a hospital was not an option, since the base was very far from any populated area. The Mirni base was the nearest Soviet research station, located 3,074 km from Novolazarevskaya. To make matters worse, there were no aircraft available, and the weather conditions in Antarctica were not helping at all. 

Given this situation and considering that his colleagues had no medical training, the only viable option for Rógozov was to perform surgery on himself. 

One of the problems was that he couldn't perform the surgery under general anesthesia, for obvious reasons, since if he had to operate on himself, he needed to be able to see and remain alert to what he was doing. So he instructed his colleagues on what to do if he lost consciousness, made the initial incision, and began the surgery. To see clearly what he was doing, he used a mirror, so everything he saw was reversed.

The operation began around 10:00 p.m. on April 30, 1961. Rógozov injected a 0.5% novocaine solution into his abdominal wall as a local anesthetic. With the help of the tractor driver and the meteorologist, who handed him the instruments, and using a mirror to view areas not directly visible, he turned onto his left side while in a semi-reclined position. He made an incision about 12 cm long to locate the appendix. Half an hour after the operation began, he started to feel general weakness and nausea, so from that point on he had to take several breaks to rest. According to his report, the inflamed appendix had a 2 × 2 cm perforation at its base. Rogozov injected antibiotics directly into the peritoneal cavity. 

Although the surgery encountered minor setbacks, he managed to perform the appendectomy (which is the name for the operation to remove the appendix). After explaining to his colleagues how they should wash the surgical instruments and administer antibiotics to themselves at the surgical site, around midnight, Rógozov collapsed and fainted. Thus, the self-surgery came to an end.

After a brief period of postoperative weakness, the signs of peritonitis disappeared. Rógozov's temperature returned to normal after five days. Seven days after the operation, his stitches were removed, and within about two weeks, he was able to resume his normal activities.

Subsequent events.

Due to exceptionally adverse weather conditions and massive chunks of thick sea ice, the ship that was supposed to pick them up in April 1962 was unable to get close enough, and the team thought they would have to spend another year in Antarctica.

As a surgeon, Rogozov was worried about losing touch with the medical world, and on a personal level, because he was trapped in the place where he had the most terrible experience of his life.

In his diary, he wrote:

"More and more often, waves of painful homesickness and hatred for this damned Antarctica wash over me. How strange it seems that I came on this expedition. All the exoticism of Antarctica wore off in a month. And yet I’m wasting two years of my life. My clinic, which I love more than any worldly pleasure, seems as far away from here as Mars.”

To the relief of the entire team, they were finally flown out, just a little later than planned.

Self-surgery captured the imagination of the Soviet public. In 1961, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In October 1962, Rógozov returned to Leningrad and began working on his doctoral degree (kandidat nauk) at his alma mater. In September 1966, he was awarded his doctorate for his dissertation titled “Esophageal Resection for the Treatment of Esophageal Cancer.” In the following years, he worked as a physician at various hospitals in that city, and from 1986 to 2000, he served as head of the Department of Surgery at the Research Institute of Tuberculous Pneumonology.

Leonid died on September 21, 2000, at the age of 66, from lung cancer.

After Rógozov’s story gained worldwide attention, appendectomies are now mandatory for Antarctic explorers from several countries, including Australia. And some in the medical profession have suggested that they should also be mandatory for future astronauts who leave Earth to establish a colony on Mars or the Moon.