Ice Bound : A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Talk Miramax Books, 2001. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Jerri Nielsen was a forty-six-year-old doctor working in Ohio when she made the decision to take a year's sabbatical at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica, the most remote and perilous place on Earth. The "Polies," as the inhabitants are known, live in almost total darkness for six months of the year, in winter temperatures as low as 100 degrees below zero -- with no way in or out before the spring. During the long winter of 1999, Dr. Nielsen, solely responsible for the mental and physical fitness of a team of researchers, construction workers, and support staff, discovered a lump in her breast. Consulting with doctors in the United States, she performed a biopsy on herself, and in July began chemotherapy treatments to ensure her survival until conditions permitted her rescue in October. A daring rescue by the Air National Guard ensued, who landed, dropped off a replacement physician, and minutes later took off with Dr. Nielsen. This is Dr. Nielsen's own account of her experience at the Pole, the sea change as she becomes "of the Ice," and her realization that she would rather be on Antarctica than anywhere else on earth. It is also a thrilling adventure of researchers and scientists embattled by a hostile environment; a penetrating exploration of the dynamics of an isolated, intensely connected community faced with adversity; and, at its core, a powerfully moving drama of love and loss, of one woman's voyage of self-discovery through an extraordinary struggle for survival. Synopsis: "Ice Bound" is the inspiring true story of Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the physician with breast cancer stranded at a South Pole research station, whose amazing rescue made headlines around the globe. Set in a remote and desolate yet strikingly beautiful landscape, Nielsen's narrative of her transforming experience is a thrilling adventure. Most of us harbor a fear of falling ill while away from home, but Dr. Jerri Nielsen experienced perhaps the ultimate sojourner's nightmare: While on a year's sabbatical to provide medical care at Antarctica's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, she discovered a lump in her breast. That's not a development ever to be welcomed, but especially not when one is stranded in one of the most remote spots on earth. Nielsen was forced to perform her own biopsy and to self-administer chemotherapy treatments for some four months until weather conditions allowed for her to be rescued. Ice Bound recounts Nielsen's courage in the face of overwhelming corporeal and climatic adversity. 362 pages..