This isn't directly related to health care policy. But it's an incredible story in the British Medical Journal about a Russian surgeon who had to perform an emergency appendectomy on himself because he was the only physician at the Antarctic base:
"Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic: Case Report" (BMJ 2009;339:b4965)
The incident occurred in 1961 but was only reported in the English medical literature in 2009. There are some graphic images which may be borderline NSFW, depending on your workplace.
All I can say is, "Wow". (Via Rory H.)
Update: The original link appears broken, but here's a cached version at The Internet Archive.
The blog of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM)
