If you want to live in the King George Island Villas Las Estrellas settlement of Antarctica, you’re required to have your appendix removed before arriving. There are only about 100 residents in the community that boasts a bank, church, school, clinic & store. In 1961, Russian explorer & surgeon Leonid Rogozov suffered life-threatening acute appendicitis at the similarly isolated Novolazarevskaya Station and was forced to operate on himself…without anesthesia. The two-hour procedure was a success but led to that mandatory protocol since the town doesn’t always have a surgeon. It often feels like people are more willing to give up a perfectly good appendix to live where & how they want than to fully surrender their life to Christ. Examiner, 9/17/20, p.21B
