A closer look
Doctors stationed at Antarctic research bases are legally required to have their appendixes removed before deploying because medical evacuations during the brutal winter months are physically impossible; the Australian Antarctic Division enforces this strict surgical prerequisite for doctors wintering at stations like Mawson, Davis, and Casey because the doctor is the only medical professional on base, meaning a sudden bout of appendicitis would be a literal death sentence with no one around to operate, so if you ever feel like your job demands too much of you, just remember that some scientists have to proactively harvest healthy internal organs from their own bodies just for the sheer privilege of freezing to death in a desolate wasteland populated mostly by belligerent penguins
