‘What is the greatest ‘f**k it, I’ll do it myself’ moment in history?’ – 24 jaw-droppingly audacious heroes

If you’ve ever attempted to plumb in a washing machine and ended up with a flooded kitchen, you’ll understand that we have professional experts for a reason. However, some people have taken on a seemingly impossible task themselves and succeeded, against the odds. Over on Reddit, user EmergencyPsychology5 asked:

“What is the greatest ‘fuck it, I’ll do it myself’ moment in history?”

And the answers will leave you feeling like a spectacularly useless example of humanity.

1.

‘Roald Dahl developed and patented a surgical device to treat children with traumatic brain injuries. Dahl had no medical training, he just did it.

‘Dahl’s four-year-old son was injured in a car accident and developed dangerous pressure on his brain due to swelling. Surgeons installed a shunt in Dahl’s son’s skull to drain fluid and relieve pressure, but it kept clogging.

‘There was no better solution on the market so Dahl worked with a toy maker to design a new shunt that drained fluid without clogging. Dahl was able to patent the design and it was subsequently used to treat thousands of children.’
–hiro111

2.

‘Dr Tracy Dixon-Salazar who went and got her PhD in neurobiology because her daughter was having seizures and nobody could tell her why this was happening and nobody could treat her daughter. She found a treatment when nobody else could. Incredible woman.’
–emilyashford22

3.

‘The man who invented the automatic switchboard (switchboards used to require a person to physically move a cable to connect the call) did so because his funeral home wasn’t getting any customers.

‘The lady operating the switchboard was the wife of his rival and was redirecting the calls to her husband. Instead of complaining to the phone company, which would have probably gotten her fired if they found sufficient evidence, he took matters into his own hands and made her entire job obsolete.’
–Lugbor

4.

‘The doctor who had to do his own appendectomy in a mirror because he was the only one who could do it in Antarctica.’
–Random-Gif-Bot

5.

‘John Stapp: Air Force doctor who was convinced that more pilots could survive if their seats didn’t disintegrate on crash landings. He proved it by strapping himself into a rocket sled and not dying. His work led to safer planes and cars.’
–Hirmuinen6

6.

‘After Dashrath Manjhi’s wife died due to a mountain blocking access to the nearest hospital, he spent the next 22 years of his life boring a tunnel through the mountain by hand. His efforts reduced the distance to the hospital from 55km to 15km.’
–aBearHoldingAShark

7.

‘General Vladimir Pikalov. Didn’t want his men exposed to radiation during the Chernobyl disaster, so he personally drove around the perimeter of the power plant to get exact radiation levels and exposing himself to 137 rems.

‘A lot of people think that this was just part of the show, but this man really made a necessary sacrifice and should be acknowledged as a hero.’
–Confusionitus

8.

‘The guy who invented rubber gloves for surgeons was himself a doctor whose nurse (also his wife) was suffering from contact dermatitis from all the chemicals they used to create an antiseptic environment.

‘So he designed some rubber gloves and asked Goodyear to make them for him, accidentally inventing the beginning of aseptic surgery in the process.’
–Careless_Piano5447

9.

‘Barry Marshall, an incredible Aussie doctor and microbiologist, got tired of other professionals discounting his theory that peptic ulcers are caused by bacteria and not stress.

‘So he infected himself with H. pylori bacteria, got an ulcer, then cured it with antibiotics. Won Nobel Prize. What a boss!’
–mentalArt1111

10.

‘It’s gotta be Alan Turing single handedly inventing computers in response to heading a code breaking team during WW2. His invention is responsible for more than half the world economy today and likely much more of the economy in the future.’
–Doshizle

11.

‘Sir Frederick Banting for selling his patent for insulin for $1 to make it affordable and accessible for all.’
–Successful-Goal1083

12.

‘Teddy Roosevelt’s son, a decorated senior officer with no need to put himself in harms way, volunteered to go ashore on D-Day at Utah Beach with his 1st Infantry Division to personally lead the troops in the biggest amphibious landing in history.’
–OrangeBird077