# Woman gives herself a Caesarean !!!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 7, 2004, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716 "2004-04-07T10:31:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/1 "2004-04-07T10:31:07Z")
I just read this on [bbc.co.uk](http://bbc.co.uk) > [@](#): > > \*\* > Woman gives herself a Caesarean\*\* > > A woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy after performing a Caesarean on herself with a kitchen knife. > Dr R Valle, of the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico, said: “She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried.” I mean fuck ! There was me thinking that I was having a bad day because of some servers that weren’t worrking as they should and we ran out of coffee filters and I read this??? It just kind of makes me feel all small and meaningless I guess… [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3606845.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3606845.stm) ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/2 "2004-04-07T12:30:10Z")
Wow! What an amazing thing that women did. Although this but made me laugh - > [@](#): > > Before losing consciousness, the woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help. She told her kids to call for help _after_ she gave herself the caesarean?! ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/3 "2004-04-07T12:45:47Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > She told her kids to call for help _after_ she gave herself the caesarean?! When I read this story the first time I thought the exact same thing. She had time for cocktails before slicing her belly open but not picking up the phone? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/4 "2004-04-07T13:36:21Z")
Boy! _THAT’S_ gonna leave a mark! ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/5 "2004-04-07T13:52:38Z")
And I’m complaining about a broken toe. Jeez, I am such a wimp. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/6 "2004-04-07T14:41:54Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > She had time for cocktails before slicing her belly open but not picking up the phone? 😕 Well… > [@](#): > > The unidentified 40-year-old, lived in a rural area of Mexico without electricity or running water, and eight hours from the nearest hospital. I don’t think there was a phone ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/7 "2004-04-07T18:26:33Z")
I wonder how she avoided slicing her bladder or some other major internal organ, open? I watch ER. I know how easy it is to botch a C-Section. 😃 In all seriousness… EGAD! ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/8 "2004-04-07T19:55:32Z")
Holy cow!, that takes a pair of big bronze ovaries to do! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/9 "2004-04-07T20:09:22Z")
Damn. So much for the inconspicuous bikini-line scar, I guess. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/10 "2004-04-07T22:00:31Z")
I guess the local pig gelder was busy. Is this, perhaps, the most extreme surgery ever performed by a person, on themselves? (Which DIDN’T kill them?) ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/11 "2004-04-07T22:04:07Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > I guess the local pig gelder was busy. > > Is this, perhaps, the most extreme surgery ever performed by a person, on themselves? (Which DIDN’T kill them?) CNN reported that this is the first self-administered C-section in which both the mother and baby survived. I don’t want to know about the failures. ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/12 "2004-04-07T22:51:13Z")
As a L&D RN who has seen C/sections go bad with an anesthesiologist presiding, 2 surgeons, a scrub tech, a respiratory tech and 2 RNs present, I gota say " :eek: !" Cyn, OB/GYN RN ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/13 "2004-04-07T23:45:58Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > I guess the local pig gelder was busy. > > Is this, perhaps, the most extreme surgery ever performed by a person, on themselves? (Which DIDN’T kill them?) Well, there was that guy who got his hand caught under a boulder while treking in some remote area, he had to cut his own hand with a small knife and walk back to civilization… eek… ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/14 "2004-04-08T00:06:10Z")
…and the former one-armed man[with apologies to David Janssen] has been fitted with a prosthesis and has returned to hiking/trekking/climbing. Yeesh!!! ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/15 "2004-04-08T00:33:17Z")
> [@quiltguy154](#): > > …and the former one-armed man[with apologies to David Janssen] has been fitted with a prosthesis and has returned to hiking/trekking/climbing. Yeesh!!! If I were him I´d rather be fitted with a cell phone this time… ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/16 "2004-04-08T00:52:12Z")
Sorry for no reference but I recall a story about a guy who removed a tumor from his wife’s brain with a drill and a knife because they couldn’t afford the surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/17 "2004-04-08T03:09:05Z")
> [@PictsiePat](#): > > Sorry for no reference but I recall a story about a guy who removed a tumor from his wife’s brain with a drill and a knife because they couldn’t afford the surgery. **Say what!!??** :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/18 "2004-04-08T04:20:42Z")
I have a vague recollection of a story I read back in high school that has always stuck with me. Don’t recall it being a UL caliber story, because,I don’t know why. The Gist: Around 1870-90 time period, an American woman who was either a doctor’s daughter or married at one time to a doctor, found a lump in her breast. She knew what it meant and that really nothing could be done about it. She checked herself into a hotel somewhere, drank herself silly, and over the course of a week, performed her own mastetecomy with a knife and loads of booze. Survived it. I cannot recall for the life of me where I read it. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/19 "2004-04-08T10:48:02Z")
Self-breast-lump-removal was done by a woman scientist in an Antartica station in the past two years, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716/20 "2004-04-08T12:11:47Z")
I thought the Antartica woman was airlifted out in a daring rescue. Unless that is another female scientist down there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-gives-herself-a-caesarean/238716.md?page=2)