“The CO and I had a long talk,” Lipes said. When Rector’s condition worsened, Lipes went to the commanding officer to explain the seriousness of the situation. He began to flex his right leg up on his abdomen to gain some relief.” His abdominal muscles were getting that washboard rigidity. “He had the classic symptoms of appendicitis,” Lipes remembered. When Lipes examined him, he determined that his patient’s appendix was about to burst, but he was reluctant to work on him. On the morning of September 11, 1942, his 19th birthday, Darrell Rector awakened with stomach pain and asked for a laxative. A Bursting Appendix and No Surgeon Around But with the cooperation of other crew members, Lipes began the daunting assignment of saving the life of his fellow crewman.
It was the first such operation performed on a submarine, and it was all the more miraculous because Lipes was a high school dropout, he had never attempted such an emergency procedure, and the Seadragon lacked proper surgical equipment. In cramped quarters aboard the submarine USS Seadragon, beneath the Pacific Ocean, with enemy warships circling above, 22-year-old pharmacist’s mate Wheeler Bryson (Johnny) Lipes was ordered to perform an emergency appendectomy on seaman Darrell Dean Rector.
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