13 Facts About Jerri Nielsen

Jerri Nielsen's condition remained life-threatening, and the first plane to land at the station in the spring was sent several weeks earlier than planned, despite adverse weather conditions, to take her to the US as soon as possible.

Jerri Nielsen's ordeal attracted a great amount of attention from the media, and Nielsen later wrote an autobiographical book recounting her story.

Jerri Nielsen graduated pre-med from Ohio University in Athens before entering the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo and graduating with a medical degree.

Jerri Nielsen continued to work as a physician in various medical fields, mostly as an ER surgeon.

In 1998, Jerri Nielsen was hired for a one-year contract to serve as the medical doctor at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica.

Jerri Nielsen trained her South Pole colleagues to form a small team that could assist her in the procedures.

Once back in the United States, after multiple surgeries, complications and a mastectomy, Jerri Nielsen went into remission.

Jerri Nielsen became a motivational speaker and a scholarship was created in her honor; she remarried, to Tom Fitzgerald.

In 2001, Jerri Nielsen was named Irish American of the Year by Irish America magazine.

In October 2008, Dr Jerri Nielsen announced that her cancer had returned in the form of a brain tumor.

Jerri Nielsen was active and giving talks until March 2009, three months before her death.

Jerri Nielsen died at her home in Southwick, Massachusetts on June 23,2009, at age 57.

Jerri Nielsen was survived by her second husband, Tom Fitzgerald; her parents, Lorine and Phil Cahill; her brothers, Scott Cahill and Eric Cahill; and her children from her previous marriage: Julia, Ben and Alex.