During the fourth month of winter, the participant of the 6-th Soviet Antarctic Expedition fell ill and realized that his appendix was inflamed.
The course of antibiotics only worsened his condition and there was only one way out – an urgent surgery. With the help of a meteorologist, who gave him surgical tools and a driver, who was holding a mirror, the surgeon, under the local anaesthesia, began the operation on himself. During the operation, he lost consciousness several times, but still safely finished the operation, which lasted nearly two hours.