Jerri Nielsen

Jerri Lin Nielsen (born Cahill * 1. March 1952 in Salem , Ohio ; † 23. June 2009 in Southwick , Massachusetts ) was an American physician with experience in the emergency room , in 1998 for a year as the only doctor in was employed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and developed breast cancer there .

Live and act

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

Illness at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

In 1998, Nielsen was employed as a doctor at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica with a one-year contract . This remote region is shrouded in almost permanent darkness during the six winter months at temperatures of around −60 ° C. From mid-February to the end of October, aircraft cannot land at the station, which is why the “Winterover Crew” has to take care of itself during this period.

During her time at the research station, she discovered a lump in her chest. After consulting American colleagues through email and video conferencing, she performed a biopsy on herself. However, their results were inconclusive because the resources available were too out of date to make a conclusive diagnosis.

Parachute drops of instruments and medicines

The National Science Foundation decided to send a military plane to parachute equipment and medication. Such parachute drops were conducted annually in previous years when the station was still under the US Navy , but they were later discontinued. Airplanes cannot land there in winter because their runners would stick to the extremely cold ice and the kerosene and hydraulic fluids would freeze. An Air Force C-141 cargo aircraft took off from Christchurch , flew over the pole in mid-July, and dropped six packages after staff at the station lit fires in old oil drums to mark the drop zone.

With the drugs dropped on the parachute, Nielsen began her self-treatment with hormone therapy, as previously agreed by video conference. She trained a small team from her ward colleagues to assist her with the procedures. Another biopsy, performed with the parachute-delivered equipment, made it possible to send better photos of tissue section samples to the US, which confirmed it was a malignant cancer. With the help of her improvised medical team, she began self-treatment through chemotherapy .

evacuation

In October 1999, despite the increased risk from the cold weather , a Lockheed LC-130 Hercules landed several weeks earlier than planned to take Nielsen home, drop another doctor, and evacuate another worker who had sustained a hip injury.

Treatment in the USA

After several operations, some of which were associated with complications, as well as a mastectomy had been carried out in the USA, her health improved and she was able to give lectures about her experiences. A scholarship was named after her. She married Thomas FitzGerald for the second time and took the name Jerri FitzGerald. In 2001, Nielsen was named Irish American of the Year by Irish America Magazine .

After the temporary improvement, the cancer spread in 2005 with metastases to the liver and bones, but she continued to give lectures and traveled often and long to Hong Kong , Vietnam , Australia , Ireland , Alaska and Poland and returned several times to Antarctica. In October 2008, Nielsen reported that her cancer had come back in the form of a brain tumor. She was still active and was able to give lectures until March 2009, i. H. up to three months before her death.

Brain metastases

Despite the unusual efforts of Nielsen and the support team, her breast cancer has not been successfully treated with the resources available. It reappeared after seven years and finally caused her death by metastases in the brain in 2009 , nearly eleven years after the initial diagnosis.

She died at home in Southwick, Massachusetts, aged 57. She was survived by her second husband, Thomas FitzGerald, her parents Lorine and Phil Cahill, her brothers Scott and Eric Cahill, and their children from their first marriage, Julia, Ben and Alex.

Literature and film adaptations

Together with ghostwriter Maryanne Vollers , Nielsen described their life in the autobiography Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Story of Survival at the South Pole , which became a bestseller according to the New York Times . The book was filmed in 2003 as a television film on the CBS with Susan Sarandon in the lead role ( Trapped in Eternal Ice - The Story of Dr. Jerri Nielsen ), and was the inspiration for the 2008 episode "Cate from the Ice" of the series Dr. House of the Fox Broadcasting Company , where a team somehow has to teleconference to diagnose and treat a sick psychologist at the South Pole. The story of their rescue was broadcast in 2008 as a contribution to When Weather Changed History on The Weather Channel under the title "Rescue from the South Pole" .

book

• Jerri Nielsen, Maryanne Vollers: I will live (original title: Icebound , translated by Petra Hrabak and Barbara Steckhan). Marion von Schröder, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-547-77130-7 ; as an audio book : I will live . 5 CDs, read by Ulrike Kriener. Director: Margrit Osterwold, Ullstein-Hörverlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-550-09043-9 .

See also

Nielsen's case is similar to that of Leonid Rogozov , who had to remove his own appendix because of appendicitis while he was in the Novolazarevskaya ward in 1961 . Since then, this station has always been looked after by two doctors.

Web links

• AP Obituary in the Boston Herald
• RIP Dr. Jerri Nielsen
• Jerri Nielsen Daily Telegraph obituary
• Jerri Nielsen in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Literature by and about Jerri Nielsen in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Dennis Hevesi: Jerri FitzGerald, who Treated Herself at South Pole, Dies at 57 . In: The New York Times , June 25, 2009. Retrieved March 27, 2010. 
2. ↑ Grant Segall: Jerri Lin Nielsen FitzGerald, performed breast biopsy on herself while in Antarctica ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Plain Dealer Reporter, June 25, 2009 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Jerri Nielsen, Maryanne Vollers: Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole . Hyperion, New York 2001, ISBN 0-7868-6684-5 . Pages: 1–4, 24, 61 and 217
4. ^ South Pole, Antarctica , USA Today . May 20, 2005. Retrieved November 22, 2008. 
5. ↑ South Pole rescue mission a success (PDF; 610 kB) The Antarctic Sun. October 24, 1999. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Dr. Jerri Nielsen - Incredible Story of Survival at The South Pole . Nationwide Speakers Bureau. Archived from the original on January 20, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 22, 2008. 
7. ^ ^{A b} Marion Long: The Explorer: Jerri Nielsen . Psychology Today . October 12, 2006. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 22, 2008. 
8. ↑ Dr. Jerri Nielsen . WZTV. Archived from the original on June 16, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 22, 2008. 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Julie M. McKinnon: South Pole doctor says cancer spread . The Blade. October 18, 2008. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
10. ↑ Jerri Nielsen . After cancer, now what. November 10, 2008. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 22, 2008. 
11. ^ Doctor rescued from Antarctica in 1999 dies at 57 - CNN.com . In: CNN , June 23, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010. 
12. ↑ Billy Ace Baker: Jerri Nielsen Fitzgerald: March 1, 1952– June 23, 2009 Archived from the original on September 21, 2011. Information: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Explorer's Gazette . 9, No. 2, 2009, p. 7. Retrieved May 14, 2011. 
13. ↑ Obituary
14. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Trapped in Eternal Ice - The Story of Dr. Jerri Nielsen (2003)