The k2p blog

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in 2006: Image via Wikipedia

The manager of the US South Pole Station suffered a stroke a month ago and the physician at the U.S.-run Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station recommended her immediate evacuation. But the station run by Raytheon Polar Services for the NSF have hired consulting doctors to disagree and have declined to evacuate her. Technical difficulties and budget constraints apparently!!

(I would not be surprised if the cost of the consulting doctors would have gone a long way towards bearing the cost of the evacuation!).

Discovery News:

The manager of the U.S. South Pole station wants to be evacuated, saying she suffered a stroke more than a month ago. But U.S. polar officials say she’ll have to wait until special ski-equipped airplanes can land at the frozen base several weeks from now.

The dispute between site manager Renee-Nicole Douceur, the National Science Foundation and the operator of the base, Raytheon Polar Services, has been simmering since Douceur said she suffered a stroke on Aug. 27. The physician at the U.S.-run Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station recommended her immediate evacuation. But consulting doctors hired by Raytheon and the NSF disagreed.

… In a phone interview with Discovery News, Douceur said she suffers from blurry vision and is worried about long-term effects to her health. She says she can’t wait another few weeks. 

“I’m just hanging in there and I’m looking out my window and it’s nice and clear bright and sunny,” Douceur said. I’m saying to myself why isn’t there a plane here to get me out of here today or even yesterday?” …..

…. “I have not been treated fairly here,” Douceur said. “They have been making decisions based on budgets. Isn’t a stroke a serious thing?” ……

Douceur’s family has set up a website to gain support for her cause and enlisted the aid of U.S. Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H. She’s also hired an attorney to help her plead her case. With a bit of luck she should now be evacuated on October 17th but bad weather could delay this to November.

Sounds incredibly callous from the NSF but perhaps not too surprising from Raytheon …..?

Tags: Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, National Science Foundation, Raytheon Polar Services Company, Renee-Nicole Douceur

This entry was posted on October 12, 2011 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Behaviour, Business, US. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.