Amateur Underwater Surgery.

Wheeler “Johnny” Lipes, had neither the formal training, the equipment, nor the urge to become a surgeon.

But when one of his ship mates came down with acute appendicitis 120-feet below the South China Sea, with enemy warships circling above – he had no choice. He had to do what needed to be done or his shipmate would die.

It was the first major surgery ever preformed aboard a submarine. And it was performed by a man who stepped up to the job.

Lipes is pictured with the spoons he used as surgical retractors. Link -via Cynical-C