In a May 2015 interview with BBC News, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov’s son Vladislav shared how his father successfully performed surgery on himself to remove an infected appendix, using local anaesthesia and a mirror to guide his movements as there were no other medical options available. Also read | Building up India’s health: A 1951 essay by health minister Amrit Kaur, from the HT archives
This happened in 1961, when the then 27-year-old surgeon – who was the only doctor on a team of 12 – became seriously ill while on an expedition to the Antarctic. He was part of the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition sent to build a new base at the Schirmacher Oasis. As the polar winter rolled in, Leonid reportedly started to feel tired, weak and nauseous, and later a strong pain developed down the right side of his abdomen.
Son recalls Leonid Rogozov’s self-appendectomy
Vladislav recalled: “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.”
Vladislav shared that his father’s life was in danger, and he had no hope of outside help: the journey from Russia to the Antarctic had taken 36 days by sea, and the ship wouldn’t be back for another year, while flying was impossible because of the snow and blizzards. He recalled how his father made the decision that he would perform an auto-appendectomy rather than die not doing anything.
“He was confronted with a very difficult situation of life and death. He could wait for no help, or make an attempt to operate on himself… he had to open his own abdomen to take his intestines out. He didn’t know if that was humanly possible… if my father was to fail and die it would definitely put a hard hat of negative publicity on the Soviet Antarctic programme,” Vladislav said.
Leonid had two assistants to hold up a mirror, position the lamp, hand him instruments and wipe the sweat off his forehead as he went to work. The surgery was a success and Leonid was reportedly able to resume his duties after two weeks. Upon his return from the expedition, he worked as a doctor in different hospitals in Leningrad. He died in 2000 at age 66.
Leonid’s chilling journal entry
In an April 24 Instagram post, History Cool Kids, an Instagram account that’s filled with pictures and touching stories from moments in history, shared Leonid’s thoughts gathered in his journal.
An excerpt read, “I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snowstorm whipping through my soul, wailing like a hundred jackals. 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.”
His journal entry continued: “I worked without gloves. It was hard to see. The mirror helps, but it also hinders—after all, it’s showing things backwards. I work mainly by touch. The bleeding is quite heavy, but I take my time—I try to work surely. Opening the peritoneum, I injured the blind gut and had to sew it up. Suddenly it flashed through my mind: there are more injuries here and I didn’t notice them … I grow weaker and weaker, my head starts to spin. Every 4-5 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 and … At the worst moment of removing the appendix I flagged: 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 … And then I realised that, basically, I was already saved.”
