Remember when we told you about Leonid Rogozov, the doctor who performed an appendectomy on himself? Pretty tough huh? Well, in her one-room cabin high in the mountains of southern Mexicoa, a woman topped him in pretty spectacular style, by performing her own C-section.

Ines Ramirez Perez was alone when she felt the first signs of her imminent labour, but with the nearest clinic over 80km away, and her husband, the only available help, drinking in a cantina with no phone (she didn’t have one anyway) she feared that time was running out for her and her child.

Ines suffered the pain for 12 hours before sitting down on a low wooden bench, taking several gulps from a bottle of rubbing alcohol and deciding to perform a c-section on herslef.

And so it was than on March 5, 2000, in a dim cabin, with no assistance, medical training, anaesthetic or medical tools, Ines cut through her abdomen with a 15cm knife, pulled her baby boy from her own uterus, cut his umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and passed out.

Although there were no witnesses available to confirm her story, the two obstetricians, Dr Honorio Galvan and Dr Jesus Guzman, who examined her 12 hours after the birth are wholly convinced. In fact they were so stunned by what they saw, that they told Ines’ story at a medical meeting the following year and it was eventually published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Speaking later about her ordeal, Ines had this to say:

“I couldn’t stand the pain anymore,” she said. “And if my baby was going to die, then I decided I would have to die, too. But if he was going to grow up, I was going to see him grow up, and I was going to be with my child. I thought that God would save both our lives.”

So yeah, next time your mother complains how much trouble you caused her when you were born, it’s safe to say that you’ve now got one that will top it.

Source : Syndey Morning Herald