The surgeon who operated himself

Rogozov was only 27 years old at the time and had embarked as the only doctor on the ship Ob, which in early December landed him, along with another group of polar explorers on the Antarctic coast Astrid Princess, with the task of setting up a new Soviet base. The group worked hard and in February the new base was ready. Just in time, because the terrible Antarctic winter was coming with bad weather conditions and the ship would not return until the following December. In April, as his diary shows, Rogozov began to feel ill.

At first it was nausea, malaise and weakness, but then also abdominal pain appeared that expanded to the lower right quadrant and fever to 37.5 C.

The young surgeon decided to start medical treatment with antibiotics and local cold applications, but his condition soon worsened.

The preparation for the surgery begins, and it is obviously Rogozov himself who gives all the precise instructions on what to do. Rogozov also prepares some syringes already loaded with drugs that will have to be injected if he loses consciousness.

At 2:00 the following morning, the surgery begins. It’s the first time in medical history that a surgeon will perform appendectomy surgery on his own. There was only one precedent, in 1921, by a certain Doctor Kane, but in that case the surgery was only started by the same patient, and was then completed by some assistants. Here, this time, Rogozov will have to do everything himself.

About 45 minutes pass, as his hands advance inside his own abdomen, and meanwhile the surgeon begins to feel a sense of dizziness and growing weakness, so that he has to stop several times. The assistants repeatedly dry the sweat on his forehead. Every 4-5 minutes must stop for 20-25 seconds, due to the sense of weakness that is advancing. Finally here is the appendix.

At that moment, Rogozov’s heart slows down, and he feels faint, he thinks everything is going to end badly. The surgery ends at 4 a.m., and the assistants, who have been on the verge of fainting several times, are now clearing out the equipment. Rogozov is exhausted and falls asleep with the help of a sleeping pill.

After two weeks of surgery, Rogozov returns to work. Another year passes and on May 29, 1962, the ship finally retrieves the group of explorers and takes them back to Leningrad, where Rogozov returns to work in the Department of General Surgery of the First Leningrad Medical Institute. He died on September 21, 2000, almost forty years after the extraordinary appendectomy surgery on himself.

Sara De Luca 4N