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Leonid Rogozov, The Soviet Doctor Who Performed Emergency Surgery On Himself. This doctor was a soviet GP who was on the sixth soviet antarctic expedition between 1960–1961. He was the only medical staffer stationed at the Novolazarevskaya Station. While there, he developed appendicitis, which meant he had to perform an appendectomy on himself.

The overall surgery took around two hours to finish. with the help of a driver and meteorologist, who provided instruments and held a mirror so Rogozov could observe areas not directly visible.

Rogozov lay in a semi-reclining position, half-turned to his left side. Rogozov made a 10–12 cm incision of the abdominal wall but while opening the lower intestine he accidentally cut it and had to stich it together. Then he exposed the appendix. According to his report, the appendix was found to have a dark stain at its base, and Rogozov estimated it would have burst within a day which would have been life threatening.

A picture of a removed appendix

The area in the Antartic where the crew was based.