http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-24-nielsen-obit_N.htm?csp=34

Quote :

"BOSTON — Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, who diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer before a dramatic rescue from the South Pole, has died, her husband said Wednesday. She was 57. Her husband, Thomas FitzGerald, said she died Tuesday at their home in Southwick, Mass. Her cancer had been in remission until it returned in August 2005, he said. Her courage in the winter of 1999 became legendary. She was the only doctor at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station when she discovered a lump in her breast. She told USA TODAY in January 2001 she kept the lump to herself for months, hoping it was just another of the benign cysts that occasionally cropped up and then disappeared. But this one didn't go away — and extreme cold didn't permit a rescue. When the cyst grew from a small lump to the size of a hen's egg, she told herself this was no ordinary cyst. On June 10, she informed the doctor based in Denver who was in charge of Antarctic medical stations. She wrote in an e-mail "Should I sit on this for five months, or should I perform an operation on myself?" She understood all too well she could not be airlifted until November. With guidance from U.S. based doctors via the Internet, she set on a course to treat herself. She fully expected the worst. "This was such a large tumor, I assumed that I was cooked," Nielsen told USA TODAY. She performed her own biopsy with the help of staff. She treated herself with anti-cancer drugs delivered during a mid-July airdrop by a U.S. Air Force plane in blackout, freezing conditions, until she could be rescued by the Air National Guard in October. She had no idea how much she'd come to depend on the 40 other scientists, construction workers and support staff who helped her when she took the job. She had been recently divorced and took on the assignment because she'd always wanted to visit the frozen continent and was looking for a change. "Training my friends was simple," she said. "They're some of the smartest human beings on the Earth. The Polies in general are people who can improvise. That's why they want to go there. They want to see what they're capable of. If you give them a problem as a group, they can solve it." They helped with the biopsy and chemotherapy sessions, but they couldn't solve this health problem. The tumor shrank dramatically at first, but then it started growing. Nielsen's doctor changed her chemo drugs but urged she be evacuated from the Pole as soon as possible. She wondered whether her prognosis warranted a rescue. "There's nothing worse than hearing an ambulance crashed to save somebody," she said. "I didn't want true heroes risking their lives for me." When another person who was ill was scheduled to be evacuated with her, her mind was eased. On Oct. 16, a replacement physician was dropped off by the New York National Guard and they were flown off during what was the coldest landing ever at the South Pole. At first she had a lumpectomy and eventually a mastectomy. Test after test showed the cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes under her arm. "It's just like some kind of major gift," Neilsen said. "It was a miracle." She spent the last decade speaking around the world about the cancer and how it changed her life, and also worked as roving ER doctor in hospitals around the Northeast. "She fought bravely, she was able to make the best of what life and circumstance gave her, and she had the most resilience I have ever seen in anyone," said her husband. "She fought hard and she fought valiantly." The couple would have celebrated their third anniversary next week. In addition to her husband, the Ohio native is survived by her parents, two brothers and three children."

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2389216870

6/24/2009 2:01:17 PM

old by at least like 2 hours

6/24/2009 2:01:37 PM

GOODNIGHT SWEET PRINCESS

6/24/2009 2:01:50 PM

6/24/2009 2:02:27 PM

Quote :

"old by at least like 2 hours"

had to wait for flood control...

6/24/2009 2:04:06 PM