The South Pole Doctor Who Treated Her Own Cancer

In honor of her recent death, we'd like to share the story of Dr. Jerri Nielsen, a doctor who discovered she had breast cancer while working in the remote South Pole, and was forced to treat her own disease in order to survive.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on June 25 2009

Dr. Jerri Nielsen in a 1999 Photograph released by the National Science Foundation.

Imagine being cut off from society in one of the world’s most remote locations, and discovering that you have a deadly disease in need of immediate medical treatment.

Ten years ago, that’s what happened to 47-year-old Jerri Nielsen, who had left her Ohio home after a bitter divorce to spend a year working at the scientific station in the South Pole. While working at the station that March, Nielsen discovered a hard lump in one of her breasts. She was sure it was cancer, but she wasn’t able to go to a doctor for treatment—she and her colleagues would be stuck in the South Pole for the next seven months until the snow thawed, and the only medical professional in the area was Nielsen herself.

Rather than commit herself to an immediate death sentence, Dr. Nielsen used her courage and ingenuity to fight for her life.

To take a biopsy sample of the breast tissue, she stuck herself with a needle 20 times. She trained a welder friend to assist with the operation, providing him with potatoes and chicken to practice on before attempting to make an incision in her skin. Once Dr. Nielsen had a large enough sample, a mechanic helped her to transmit images to a hospital in the United States, where her self-diagnosis was confirmed: the tumor was an aggressive form of cancer. Without the proper medical help, she wouldn’t survive for long.

Soon, a US Air Force jet performed a risky airlift mission to provide Nielsen with a pack of supplies, including chemotherapy drugs and medical equipment. Receiving instructions from American doctors via teleconferencing equipment, Dr. Nielsen performed her own chemotherapy treatments and hormone injections, with assistance from her South Pole colleagues. Although the treatments made her weak, she was able to survive the long winter until she could be rescued that October.

After returning to the United States, Dr. Nielsen’s cancer went into remission following a mastectomy and another surgery. She soon became an activist in support of cancer charities, speaking at fundraisers and writing a best-selling book called Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole. She continued her work as a physician, and three years ago, married Thomas FitzGerald.

Sadly, Dr. Nielsen’s cancer eventually returned. She passed away on Tuesday.

But while Dr. Nielsen didn’t ultimately manage to defeat the disease, she put up a brave and noble battle—and she would have you know that her death isn’t the important part of the story. As she wrote to her parents in 1999, while trapped in the South Pole expecting to die there: ”More and more as I am here and see what life really is, I understand that it is not when or how you die but how and if you truly were ever alive.”

Filed under: Health and Wellbeing, Heroes, History,

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