God made human beings flexible enough to survive in and adopt to most severe and killing situations and act accordingly. Acts of self surgeries performed by different people enlighten the above mentioned fact.


Ines Ramirez



This 50 years old lady lives in Mexico and was mother of 7 kids at the time of surgery. Back in 2000, she was alone in her house, when her labor started. Unfortunately her village has no hospital or doctor. After few hours of continuous pain and  no advancement in her labor, she decided to operate herself. She just took a 15 cm knife and began to cut herself. After continuous cutting for hours she reached her uterus and pulled her baby; who started crying and was alive.Amazing story isn’t it?


After few hours of unconsciousness , she was discovered by a village health work and was taken to the nearest hospital which was about 8-9 hours drive. Few months and she fully recovered, both baby and mother were in good health at the time of discharge from hospital.




Leonid Rogozov




Dr. Leonid Rogozov from Russia is a true medical genius. At the young age of 27 he was stationed in Antarctic as part of  Soviet Antarctic Expedition. While stationed, he developed peritonitis,his appendicitis was worsening.

On the morning of 29 April 1961, Rogozov experienced general weakness, nausea, and moderate fever, and later pain in the upper right portion of the abdomen. All possible conservative treatment measures did not help. By 30 April signs of localized peritonitis became apparent, and his condition worsened considerably by the evening.He has no choice but to perform self surgery as there was no other doctor at Novolazarevskaya Station.


on 30th of April at round about 10:00 PM,with the help of a meteorologist, a driver and few scientists he started operating himself. He sat in reclined position and started cutting his appendix, during 2 hours long operation he got fainted but by luck or sheer will power he was able to compelte the surgery and fully recoverd.


This is one of the most famous cases of self-surgery in the history of the world.



Deborah Sampson



Story of Deborah Sampson is really interesting. She was an American woman who impersonated a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and was the only woman to fight in the Revolutionary War.

While fighting she got injured,received 2 musket balls in her thigh, an enormous cut on her forehead  and was taken to the hospital,on the way to the hospital she begged her fellow soldiers to let her die in order to avoid being recognized as woman.


Disagreeing to her , one of the soldier took her to the hospital , where doctors treated her for forehead wound, but she escaped from the hospital before musket balls could have been removed. She operated her thigh and took one of the balls out with the help of penknife and a sewing needle. Other ball was too deep her to reach for  and her leg never recovered fully.


Later on in 1783 she was wounded again and this time doctor discovered that she was a woman and was discharged from Army.





Evan O’Neill Kane



He is considered father of moden day surgey and was chief surgeon of New York City’s Kane Summit Hospital. Kane wanted to prove to the world that anesthesia was not necessary for minor operations; for that he decided to perform an act of self surgery. He performed an operation to remove his own appendix under local anesthetic, he used mirrors to enable him to see the work area. Although at this time the operation was rather more major than today, the incision to remove an appendix was much larger than modern keyhole surgery techniques, nevertheless, Kane was well enough to be taken home the following day.


On another occasion, in 1932 at the age of 70, Kane repaired his own inguinal hernia under local anaesthetic. The hernia had been caused by a horse riding accident six years earlier. The operation was carried out at the Kane Summit Hospital with the press, including a photographer, in attendance.




Jerri Nielsen



In 1998, Nielsen was hired as the medical doctor at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica.In the course of her work at the research station, Nielsen discovered a lump in her breast. After consulting US physicians via e-mail and video conference, she decided to perform a biopsy upon herself as station was totally cut off from the outside world during winters.


Nielsen began her treatment, following the advice of her doctors over the satellite link. She first began a hormone treatment. She trained her South Pole colleagues, none of whom had prior medical experience, to form a small team that could assist her in the procedures. Biospy was successful and her life was saved.