Antarctic Practice: 'We See It All, and Then Some'
Highs and Lows at the Bottom
Dr. Iserson's best day happened when the phone rang just as his office was closing.
“I picked it up. 'We've had a [snowmobile] accident with a hand injury,' the person said. 'We're at a field camp and have a helicopter coming.' After ascertaining that it didn't sound too bad, I suddenly thought to ask, 'Where are you located?'
The response: “On [Mount] Erebus.”
Dr. Iserson immediately got permission from the research manager to accompany the helicopter on an “amazing” trip to the Mount Erebus volcano.
“As billed, the patient had suffered only a minimal injury—while at an awesome location,” he said. “We landed at the scientific field camp on the active, snow-covered volcano only a few hundred yards from the summit. As it turns out, most long-time workers at McMurdo have never even been on Erebus. That was quite a treat!” The patient was able to return to Mount Erebus and her research 2 days later.
His worst day wasn't because of a clinical crisis—although it involved a challenge all too common to emergency physicians everywhere: overcrowding. The management told him they were planning to put a bunk in his room, “in case we need to put someone else in there with you.” Station management had already moved him to a very small room in the oldest dorm on station to guarantee that he would have a private room. “Eventually, they got so much push-back from the people in that dorm that they made other arrangements,” he added. “No bunk beds in that dorm.”
Expect the Unexpected
Then there have been the unexpected cases, like the heavy-equipment operator who had a very heavy pipe dropped on his finger and came strolling through the door with a gloved hand held high. “With our whole team watching, I removed the glove and immediately was wondering if we had a bone rongeur available.”
A small bit of tissue was all that connected his entire fingertip to his finger; the bone itself was completely exposed. “But since he could move it—and I had no way of moving him off the continent—I decided to replace the tissue over the bone and repair it,” Dr. Iserson recalled.
On another day, a friend of Dr. Iserson's came into his office and casually remarked that she had been unable to swallow anything—including water—since the night before. “After trying more benign options and without having any contrast I could safely use to image it, I opted to use the old push-it-through-with-the-NG-tube trick,” he said. “Not the most elegant solution, but it worked.”
More Than Medicine and Penguins
“Aside from the fascinating folks you meet everywhere you go, there are, intentionally, far more activities to do than time to do them,” he wrote. Along with a large library, the station hosts musicians who play often. Movies are shown every night in the coffee house, and there are lots of organized sports activities, periodic team trivia, bingo and other games, cross-country skiing on the Ice Shelf, a craft room, and even the Ross Island Yacht Club, which he added doesn't have any boats—“only interesting talks and good food.”
As for food, the staff has access to fresh fruits and vegetables, depending on what the supply planes bring. They also have eggs.
The continent also hosts periodic lectures by scientists and others who are sometimes among the most prominent experts in their field. Even the stars drop by for visits. Dr. Iserson had the chance to talk with Sir David Attenborough when he came to film for the BBC.
“This is a huge continent with amazing vistas over the Ross Sea Ice Shelf and of the Royal Geographic Society Mountain Range in the distance,” he said.
Unlike workers at the South Pole Station, Dr. Iserson said that they often spent a lot of time outdoors. “So what's a little −15°F temperature among friends?”
“You are challenged to use everything you know and know how to do in medicine,” said Dr. Iserson (left).
Source Courtesy Kenneth Stearns
In February, Dr. Kenneth V. Iserson finished up a 6-month tenure as lead physician at McMurdo Station.
Source Courtesy Dr. Kenneth V. Iserson
