ICE BOUND, A DOCTOR'S INCREDIBLE BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL AT THE SOUTH POLE, by Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers; Hyperion Books; 2001; 362 pages; $23.95.
In the fall of 1999, Jerri Nielsen, a doctor at the South Pole, made headlines by treating herself for breast cancer while awaiting rescue.
She tells the tale in "Ice Bound," a well-written book about Nielsen's battle with cancer as well as her life in one of the most remote and rugged places on earth — a place where inhabitants live in almost total darkness for six months out of the year in temperatures as low as 100 degrees below zero.
It took great courage for Nielsen to survive her ordeal — and to bare the details about her life and experiences. Other cancer survivors and patients will find the book especially interesting.
The book begins with background on Nielsen's life. After divorcing and losing custody of her three children, she volunteered to be the doctor at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where she would be responsible for the well-being of 41 researchers, construction workers and support staff. Being a "night person," the South Pole seemed like the perfect place — a geographic cure.
Upon arriving for her yearlong stint, Nielsen quickly discovered how harsh life inside — and outside — the base was. The South Pole is the highest, driest, coldest, windiest and emptiest place on earth. At 1.5 times the size of the United States, 97 percent of it is covered by ice. Because of the extra thin air, the location of the U.S. base — 9,300 feet above sea level — seems more like 11,000 feet above sea level.
A couple of months into her tour, she discovered a lump in her breast. She kept it secret for three months, hoping it would go away as others had. But a self-performed biopsy confirmed the lump was cancerous. Bad weather made a rescue impossible. Drugs were dropped in, and she began chemotherapy to ensure her survival until she could be airlifted out.
Nielsen writes that it was only when she realized her ailing health would jeopardize the health of others she was treating or might have to treat that she told others of her cancer.
Sometimes in the book her cancer ordeal takes a temporary backseat to the unusual life at the South Pole. Her e-mails to family and other doctors helped create a powerful story of life and survival.
"We came to understand and rely on each other in a way that is not of this century, not of this time. This is how human beings were meant to live, in tribes," she wrote in one of those e-mails. Surprisingly, Nielsen wasn't the first doctor to have a medical problem at the South Pole.
In 1961, a Russian doctor had to remove his own appendix. After that, the Russians tried to always have two doctors stationed there.
Nielsen also writes about becoming the center of a media sensation. After the public learned of her story, reporters found ways to hound her, despite her location. They even plagued her family.
After some 10 months at the station, on Oct. 16, 1999, Nielsen was rescued and flown to Indiana University Hospital where she underwent a lumpectomy. The cancer hadn't spread, and she's still healthy today.
"I would give anything to return to the pole, but I doubt I will ever be allowed to work there," Nielsen writes. "It's too risky. My cancer could return at any time."
This book is an extraordinary adventure and well worth reading.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com