Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the U.S. physician at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station found a lump in one of her breasts in June, 1999. The U.S. Air Force parachuted medical supplies to the station in July.   A Hercules LC-130 plane from the 109th Airlift Wing, equipped with skis for the landing on ice and snow, arrived in October.

The plane's four propeller engines were kept turning to keep the aircraft from cooling and being crippled by the extreme cold -- minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit) -- during the 20 minute stop-over to pick up Nielsen and drop off another doctor to take her place at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station.

She had been forced to treat herself since July because she discovered the breast lump early in the February-October polar winter, when no landings are possible at the pole.