Self Surgery, Made History

                  

Apparently everyone likes to listen to inspirational and motivational stories. Be it a mythological or historical. Every story gives a take-home message. These stories pump up our blood, excite our heartbeats, and give a dash of an adrenaline rush. Here, I am glorifying an unsung forgotten Hero that I truly admire. His unprecedented act made history in the medical field and it is a typical case of self surgery. The hero was a young 27 year old Russian surgeon, Leonid Rogozov and incident took place post World War II.

Dr. Leonid Rogozov(Credit : Google Images)

 Imagine you are a qualified doctor (surgeon) trapped in remote corner of the world. Suddenly you fall severely sick, face a medical emergency but medical assistance and infrastructure is around 3 to 4 days away. Surgical intervention is the only option you have. You are almost on deathbed; you are hapless and helpless with no ray of hope. And that, it is impossible to survive; you have only two options, either to see yourself dying on deathbed with unfathomable and unbearable pain or being a medical surgeon you go for a self-surgery. But, in both the situations, you have to tolerate tremendous pain. What would you have done? Which one would you have preferred? It needed a Lion's heart for the latter one. One doctor did it. Indeed, you read it correct.

It was a bright sunny day of 1960-61 on Antarctica. Soviet Union (now Russia) had initiated an Antarctic expedition and sent twelve scientists accompanied by an only doctor Leonid Rogozov. One morning he experienced symptoms like weakness, nausea, fever and significant pain in right lower abdomen. He took necessary meds but seemed no improvement. His condition started deteriorating by the evening. Emergency medic was 1600 kilometre away. (Travel time from Russia to Antarctica base was 36 days by sea. Flying was not feasible due to extreme weather of snow and blizzards) His situation was absolutely a bizarre. He recognized his symptoms and diagnosed himself as acute appendicitis. He further decided the line of treatment. It was to perform an appendectomy surgery on him. Self surgery was not an easy choice. He sensed with his intuition that, had it bursted, it could have definitely been fatal. Dr.Rogozov kept his head cool & chalked out a micro-plan of surgery execution. He also assigned roles to his colleagues. Three of his colleagues served as his assistants during this self-surgery. One of them held the mirror and adjusted lamp. Dr.Rogozov used mirror reflection to see what he was doing. The second one managed surgical equipment and the third stayed idle as a reserved staff in case either of two fainted or nauseated.

D-Day

He trained his fellow colleagues on how to inject adrenaline, how to perform artificial ventilation if he starts to lose his consciousness. Local anaesthesia was preferred over a whole body. He used a mirror to help him in a surgery but its inverted view was too much annoying and made him feel like dizzy. So he decided to operate by touch senses without using gloves. Right from the deep incision in abdomen to the final stitches, he accomplished the first self-surgery nearly after two hours. Post-surgery protocols were meticulously administered by him and monitored by his colleagues.

(Image Source: Google)

                                                    

                                                    (Image Source: Google)

Return to home

He became the national Hero. His incredible survival story was word-of-mouth for everyone. He was awarded Soviet Union's highest honour "Order of the Red Banner of Labour.” There are several things to learn from this act of courage and valour inside the operation theatre.

• There is a solution to every adverse situation.

• Keep your head cool, stay calm and composed and do not react, respond instead

• With the iron and steel like determination and courage you can accomplish any herculean task.

• Chalk out and jot down the plan before execution

• Delegate the duties as man management is important.

He had thousand reasons to give up. But he did not. Remember, for any problem, do not change the face but face the change and victory will only be yours.