WASHINGTON -- Ski-equipped cargo planes will head for the South Pole this week to airlift a doctor who discovered a lump in her breast during the Antarctic winter, the National Science Foundation said on Tuesday.
Two LC-130 Air National Guard cargo planes will leave their base at Scotia, New York, in the next day or two, said Peter West, a spokesman for NSF, which funds research at the South Pole.
"They will fly to Antarctica and stand by to bring Dr.[Jerri] Nielsen out about the same time she would have come out anyway," West said in a telephone interview from NSF headquarters just outside Washington.
Nielsen probably would have been able to leave the South Pole by late October or early November under normal conditions, as the southern hemisphere spring progresses and landing conditions become more favorable, West said.
Nielsen, the only medical doctor at the South Pole, discovered a lump in one of her breasts in June, in the depths of the southern winter. The weather then was so severe that no plane could land in Antarctica to take her back to the United States for diagnosis and treatment.
But a US military plane was able to drop some medical supplies and communications equipment. An ultrasound scanner that was part of the 11 July drop was damaged beyond repair, but video-conferencing equipment arrived in good condition.
"She has been using the equipment and some of the medicines that were dropped, in consultation with physicians in the United States," West said. He would not comment on her medical condition, and NSF has never answered questions about whether breast cancer has been diagnosed.
The cargo planes, which are fitted with skis so they can land safely at the South Pole, will eventually fly from Christchurch, New Zealand to Antarctica, possibly by the end of October, West said.
But since the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station where Nielsen works is not yet officially open, weather will determine when the airlift will take place, he said.
The South Pole station is physically cut off from the world during the nine-month-long Antarctic winter.
Communications links with the outside world include amateur radio and VHF communications with McMurdo Station, which is on an Antarctic island about 730 miles (1,173 km) from Amundsen-Scott station at the pole. There is also routine access to email, NSF officials have said.
However, access to broadcast-quality video used in tele-medicine is limited to about 4-1/2 hours each day.
Nielsen had a physical evaluation including a mammogram before going to Antarctica in December 1998, and no lump was apparent then, NSF officials have said.
NSF, an independent US federal agency, funds and manages the US scientific programs in Antarctica.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
