Dr. Jerri Fitzgerald dies 10 years after being rescued from the South Pole

Posted on June 24, 2009
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Dr. Jerri Fitzgerald was at a research camp in the South Pole when she discovered a lump in her breasts. Unfortunately for her it was already winter and the camp was closed to new arrivals. A rescue was impossible due to the extremely harsh weather conditions at the South Pole.

Being the only doctor at the camp, she performed a biopsy on herself and diagnosed it as cancer. Then she administered chemotherapy to herself with anti-cancer drugs air dropped by an US Airforce plane in hazardous blackout weather conditions. She had to get help from a welder and a machinist at the camp to adminster medications to herself through an IV.

It’s truly amazing how humans are able to demonstrate such strength in such dire circumstances.

She was rescued in a daring rescue when the weather finally got better (temperatures were still below 50) that October. She chronicled her experience in a best selling book called “Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole”.

Dr. Fitzgerald was definitely a brave person. She tied today at the age of 57, almost 10 years after her rescue from the South Pole. Her cancer had been in remission until 2005, when it finally came back to claim her.

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