Regarding the discussion about appendicitis – While it is definitely not something you want to try at home, in 1961, Soviet physician Leonid Rogozov, removed his own appendix. He was the only physician in a Soviet Antarctic expedition station. In the words of a Russian account:
“At night, on the 30th of April, 1961, the surgeon was being helped by a mechanical engineer and a meteorologist who were giving him the medical instruments and holding a small mirror at his belly. Laying half bent on the left side, the doctor made a local anesthesia with novocaine solution and made a 12cm incision in the right iliac region with a scalpel. Either watching in the mirror or by touch he removed an inflamed appendix and injected antibiotic in the abdominal cavity. In 30 or 40 minutes from the beginning of the operation there developed a faint and giddiness and the surgeon had to make pauses for some rest. Nevertheless, by midnight the operation lasting 1 hour and 45 minutes was over. In five days the temperature normalized, in two days more – the stitches were taken out.”
There are few survival stories that can top that one. – Stephen in Florida