Mercy Mission Nearing An End

A daring mission to rescue a doctor with breast cancer stranded at the South Pole is in its final stages Monday.

Two Air National Guard C-130s are scheduled to fly from New Zealand to McMurdo Station in Antarctica Tuesday. One of the planes will then fly to pick up Doctor Jerri Nielsen once the temperature rises above minus 58 degrees.

Since an emergency drop of medical supplies in July, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes, Nielsen's been treating herself for possible cancer.

Her parents in Youngstown, Ohio have been reluctant to speak publicly and are understandably worried, since their daughter has been isolated at the pole.

"We're worried about her at this point, but everybody is doing everything they can," her father said.

Until now, she has been unable to leave because planes can't land in the pitch-blackness and near 100 degree-below-zero temperatures of the South Pole winter.

"We thought she was stuck, we knew that she was there and this happened and she gambled and lost," her mother said.