Auto-appendicectomy is defined as an operation on oneself to remove the appendix. First attempted under spinal anaesthesia in 1912 by American surgeon, Bertram F. Alden, who after commencing his appendicectomy had his assistant continue amid their threats to leave. There are three published cases of completed auto-appendicectomy, the first in 1921 for uncomplicated acute appendicitis was performed by Evan O’Neill Kane, an American surgeon, under local anaesthesia supported by trained surgical assistants. Kane’s objective was to demonstrate the safety of appendicectomy under local anaesthesia due to complications associated with general anaesthesia. The least renowned auto-appendicectomy occurred in 1944 when Australian Army Captain Robert Kerr “Jock” McLaren, a veterinarian, performed his own appendicectomy without anaesthetic. At the time McLaren was involved in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in the Philippines. McLaren threatened a local medical student with a pistol, forcing him to assist. Visualising the operative field with a mirror, he used a razor blade and dessert spoons to create a muscle-splitting incision to access his abdominal cavity extracting a perforated appendix. A better known case in 1961, involved Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov, a Russian surgeon, who performed an appendicectomy on himself under local anaesthesia having developed acute appendicitis while stationed in Antarctica. He organised several untrained assistants, artificial ventilation and medications including antibiotics. Unlike McLaren, both Kane and Rogozov were experienced surgeons with access to anaesthetic and sterilised surgical instruments. All three survived to tell their tales of do-it-yourself appendicectomy.