Jun

30

South Pole doc succumbs to cancer

June 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

24nielsen-600JERRI NIELSEN was hired in 1998 to spend a year at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It was the year she found a lump in her breast, did her own biopsy and eventually diagnosed herself with breast cancer.

It was winter and the station was cut off from the world, but she was able to consult with medical personnel in the US via telecommunications. A military plane was dispatched to drop equipment and supplies. Nielsen trained a small team, none of whom had had medical experience, to assist her in administering treatment.

Amid much publicity, a plane was sent — ahead of schedule and despite dangerous weather — to rescue the doctor. After a mastectomy and extensive treatment, the doctor lived to write a book on her experiences, make several visits back to the pole and travel the world on speaking engagements. Sadly, her cancer was not to stay in remission.

Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, who diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer before a dramatic rescue from the South Pole a decade ago, has died after the disease recurred. She was 57. [...]

She performed a biopsy on herself with the help of staff. A machinist helped her with her IV and test slides, and a welder helped with chemotherapy. She treated herself with anti-cancer drugs delivered during a gripping mid-July 1999 airdrop by a U.S. Air Force plane in blackout, freezing conditions. [...]

The disease made her stronger, she said in November 2001.

”I would rather not have it. But the cancer is part of me. It’s given my life color and texture. Everyone has to get something. Some people are ugly, some people are stupid. I get cancer,” she said at lecture in Denver.

Read the full NY Times story


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