Doctor in South Pole Rescue Dies at 57

[joeybee12]

Source: New York Times

BOSTON (AP) -- Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, who diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer before a dramatic rescue from the South Pole, has died. 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 Wednesday.

She was the only doctor among 41 staff at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in winter 1999 when she discovered a lump in her breast. At first, she didn't tell anyone, but the burden became too much to bear.

''I got really sick,'' she told The Associated Press in a 2003 interview. ''I had great big lymph nodes under my arm. I thought I would die.''

Rescue was out of the question. Because of the extreme weather conditions, the station is closed to the outside world for the winter. She had no choice but to treat the disease herself, with help from colleagues she trained to care for her and U.S.-based doctors she stayed in touch with via satellite e-mail.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/24/us/AP-US-Obit-Jerri-Nielsen.html?_r=1&hpw

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How sad! This was one of those stories where you (at least I did) got involved and really rooted for her. RIP.

[Danmel]

1. Very sorry to hear this

She was one brave woman.

Condolences to her loved ones.

[crim son]

2. I read her book on the discovery and self-treatment of her cancer.

Yeah, a very tough lady. Sorry to hear that the cancer returned.

[Dinger]

3. Sad News

My condolences to her family and friends.:-(

[SoCalDem]

4. Sorry to hear that, but

she did have an additional decade of life, and after that experience, she probably lived every day to its fullest. No one knows when the timer goes off, for any of us. Look at those people who took the metro last week. None of them knew it would be their last day, and yet it was.

She called attention to breast cancer, to Polar research, and to science in general. I wish she had not relapsed, but she made the most of the time she had returned to her..

RIP.