Nielsen first came to the world's attention in the summer of 1999, when she performed a biopsy on herself (using ice as her only anesthetic) and discovered that she was suffering from an aggressive from of breast cancer.
The situation was certainly dramatic. Nielsen was the only doctor within 600 miles, trapped on the ice in the middle of the polar winter with little in the way of advanced medical supplies. Her sole link with the outside world came through e-mail, and that worked only when a communication satellite passed over the Pole.
Despite Nielsen's request that publicity be avoided, her employer - a subcontractor to the National Science Foundation - was overwhelmed by media interest in the "South Pole doctor.