Bad things happen to good people

Rico says you think you got problems? Check out this woman's problem, from the Slate:

The South Pole might just be the worst place on Earth to get sick.
New Hampshire native Renee-Nicole Douceur, 58, found this out the hard way after experiencing stroke symptoms in late August while working as an engineer at an Antarctic research station for federal contractor Raytheon Polar Services Co. After almost two months of ongoing vision and speech problems, Douceur was airlifted early Monday to a hospital in New Zealand.
"My brain is still intact," Douceur wrote in an email to the Associated Press Monday, adding that she is scheduled for medical tests on Tuesday.
Officials had rejected her initial request for an emergency evacuation in August, citing frigid winter temperatures and high winds that could make the trip dangerous for pilots, coupled with the judgment that Douceur’s condition was not life-threatening. The company told the Associated Press that the decision not to evacuate the engineer was made by the National Science Foundation, which is the federal agency employing Raytheon. Douceur and her family were outspoken in their disagreement with the decision, organizing a webpage, saverenee.org, a Facebook page and a petition that has accumulated more than 1,000 signatures.
“By what standard is a stroke considered a nonemergency?” said Doucer’s niece, Sydney Raines, in a NYT article earlier this month.
In the period between the stroke and the evacuation Monday, Douceur reported having difficulty reading and recalling simple words during evaluations with doctors at the research station. She was also on medical leave from her job and receiving breathing treatments while stranded in Antarctica. National Institutes of Health guidelines say someone suffering a stroke should get to a hospital within three hours for a CT scan and medicine that can prevent blood clots for some stroke patients. The research station did not have equipment to perform CT scans, nor medicine to treat stroke victims.
Douceur is not the first to experience health problems while beyond the reach of rescue planes. Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald drew international attention when she diagnosed and treated herself for breast cancer while stationed in Antarctica in 1999. After a period of remission, FitzGerald died from the cancer in 2009.

Rico says another good situation not to be in...