Renee-Nicole Douceur, the winter manager at the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole, was sitting at her desk on Aug. 27 when she suffered a stroke . 
 
 “I looked at the screen and was like, ‘Oh my God, half the screen is missing,’ ” she said Wednesday in a telephone interview. 
 
 The station’s doctors quickly determined that Ms. Douceur should be removed as soon as possible from the isolated base, which has no M.R.I. or CT scan equipment, nor medicine to treat stroke victims, she said. 
 
 But that has not happened, and the situation has pitted Ms. Douceur and her family against Raytheon Polar Services, which manages the station through a contract with the National Science Foundation. Both Raytheon and the science foundation say that it would be too dangerous to send a rescue plane to the South Pole now and that Ms. Douceur’s condition is not life-threatening. 
 
 “During the winter period, extremely cold temperatures and high winds make an extraction dangerous for all involved, passengers as well as crew,” said Jon Kasle, a Raytheon spokesman, “and such an extraction is considered only in life-threatening conditions.” 
 
 Ms. Douceur, 58, of Seabrook, N.H., is in stable condition but said she had partial vision loss in both eyes. She is on medical leave from her job and spends part of every day on an oxygen therapy device that helps her breathe in the high altitude, she said. 
 
 The first cargo flight of the spring is to leave Oct. 17 — weather permitting — from the South Pole for McMurdo Station, on the Antarctic coast. From there, Ms. Douceur would fly to New Zealand for medical attention. 
 
 To Ms. Douceur and Sydney Raines, her niece, that is not soon enough. Last month, Ms. Raines started a campaign to put pressure on the National Science Foundation and Raytheon. 
 
 “My question back to them is, By what standard is a stroke considered a nonemergency?” said Ms. Raines, who was raised by Ms. Douceur. 
 
 Ms. Raines has set up a Web site, Saverenee.org, and a Facebook page that urge people to call officials at Raytheon and the National Science Foundation. A petition at Whitehouse.gov has more than 700 signatures. Ms. Raines has enlisted the help of Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who wrote to the foundation. 
 
 “They’re saying the risk is too high,” said Ms. Douceur, who has worked at the South Pole on and off for three years. “But why aren’t you mobilizing and prepositioning planes so that when the weather breaks, you can come get me, instead of just saying, ‘No, you’re O.K., you’re going to wait’? It feels like they’re just stonewalling.” 
 
 Treating a stroke victim without access to imaging technology is difficult, said Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz, deputy director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, because it is impossible to be sure what kind of stroke occurred. “If it’s a blockage of the blood vessel, the damage is done,” he said. But if the problem is a hemorrhaging vessel, more damage could still occur, “because that blood vessel is feeding brain that’s undamaged yet.” 
 
 The most famous instance of a person being airlifted from the South Pole for medical reasons was that involving Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, a doctor who treated herself for breast cancer for months while stationed at the American research station. When she departed, on Oct. 16, 1999, it was the earliest in the Antarctic spring that a plane had taken off, according to The Antarctic Sun, a newspaper put out by the United States Antarctic Program, which is run by the National Science Foundation. She died in 2009 of a recurrence of breast cancer. 
 
 Temperatures must be higher than minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit for most planes to land at Amundsen-Scott or the fuel will turn to jelly. While that threshold has been crossed at the South Pole recently, the temperature still regularly dips to 70 degrees below zero. 
 
 “A risky rescue flight might not only jeopardize the health and safety of the patient but that of the flight crew and personnel on the ground at South Pole as well,” said Deborah Wing, a spokeswoman for the National Science Foundation. 
 
 Ms. Douceur and Raytheon are also tussling over whether a medical attendant should be on the Oct. 17 flight. She says she is worried about the effects of flying on her already oxygen-deprived brain and wants a medical professional on board. Raytheon has offered to send an unspecified “attendant,” she said. The company declined to comment. 
 
 Flying into Amundsen-Scott during the Antarctic winter, which runs from mid-February until late October, is indeed dangerous, said Col. Ronnie Smith, a former Air Force navigator who has flown there about 300 times. 
 
 “It’s like no other airfield in the U.S.,” Colonel Smith said. A pilot landing a plane there in winter, when it is dark 24 hours a day, would be flying blind “because you can’t install lights under the ice,” he said. 
 
 “You need low wind conditions, because even a 15-mile-per-hour wind will blow the loose snow around 100 or 200 feet up in the air,” Colonel Smith said. ||||| The manager of the U.S. South Pole station wants to be evacuated, saying she suffered a stroke more than a month ago. But U.S. polar officials say she'll have to wait until special ski-equipped airplanes can land at the frozen base several weeks from now. 
 
 The dispute between site manager Renee-Nicole Douceur, the National Science Foundation and the operator of the base, Raytheon Polar Services, has been simmering since Douceur said she suffered a stroke on Aug. 27. The physician at the U.S.-run Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station recommended her immediate evacuation. But consulting doctors hired by Raytheon and the NSF disagreed. 
 
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 Since then, Douceur's family has set up a website to gain support for her cause and enlisted the aid of U.S. Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H. She's also hired an attorney to help her plead her case. 
 
 In a phone interview with Discovery News, Douceur said she suffers from blurry vision and is worried about long-term effects to her health. She says she can't wait another few weeks. 
 
 "I'm just hanging in there and I'm looking out my window and it's nice and clear bright and sunny," Douceur said. I'm saying to myself why isn't there a plane here to get me out of here today or even yesterday?" 
 
 Douceur said she worried that she may have had an aneurysm or a blood clot to the brain. The base doesn't have MRI or other scanning equipment to do make that diagnosis. 
 
 "I have not been treated fairly here," Douceur said. "They have been making decisions based on budgets. Isn't a stroke a serious thing?" 
 
 Representatives of the NSF and Raytheon say a medical evacuation over the Antarctic continent is risky and only attempted if there's a life-threatening condition. 
 
 In 1999, for example, base doctor Jerri Nielson was airlifted evacuated in mid-October after treating herself for breast cancer over winter. She died in 2009. In August 2001, another base doctor, Ron Shemenski, was evacuated to Chile after he was diagnosed with potentially life-threatening pancreatitis. 
 
 NSF officials in Washington said they are checking in daily on Douceur. 
 
 "In considering whether to attempt a very risky emergency medical evacuation during the challenging winter season in Antarctica, NSF must always balance the patient's condition with the possibility for injury or the loss of life of the patient, the flight crew and personnel on the ground at South Pole against the potential benefits to the patient," an NSF spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement. 
 
 "We are continuing to monitor the patient's condition closely and are prepared to consider alternative courses of action if merited by a change in condition, as determined by medical experts." 
 
 There are about 50 workers who are over-wintering at the station, which is located at the bottom of the planet and is three to five hours by air (depending on the aircraft) to McMurdo Station, the main U.S. research facility in Antarctica. From McMurdo, it's another four-hour flight to Christchurch, New Zealand, the closest city with advanced medical facilities. 
 
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 Some airplanes can make the trip, but extreme cold freezes engines and hydraulic fluids, not to mention the difficulty of landing on an airstrip that can't be cleared of snow and ice. 
 
 The South Pole's clear skies and unique location make it a perfect place to study astrophysics, astronomy and atmospheric chemistry. Both scientists receiving government grants and staff workers hired by Raytheon assume a certain amount of risk, U.S. officials say, since conditions in Antarctica are treacherous. 
 
 Temperatures at the pole are currently around 58 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of close to minus 87, according to a weather website operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
 
 The Amundsen-Scott base is equipped with a medical clinic, fuel, food and supplies for the six-month winter-over. But once the last flight leaves in late February, nobody can leave until late October. 
 
 Douceur is a 58-year old retired nuclear engineer from Hampton Falls, N.H. She said she has spent several years working in Antarctica managing the two U.S. bases, but was making her first 12-month stay at the South Pole. 
 
 She says NSF officials have told her that specially equipped Twin Otter aircraft will be landing at the South Pole on Oct. 13 to refuel, and then continue on to McMurdo. If all goes according to plan, the planes will return and pick her up several days later. She would then be transferred to a larger C-130 Hercules transport for the leg to New Zealand. 
 
 Niiler reported for Discovery News from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in January on an NSF Journalism Fellowship.
– A compelling story out of the US South Pole station: Manager Renee-Nicole Douceur says she has suffered a stroke and needs to be evacuated for proper treatment, but the National Science Foundation says it won't be safe enough to send in a plane for at least a few more weeks. The 58-year-old Douceur and her family are now making a public push to pressure the NSF and the company that manages the base, Raytheon Polar Services, to move. The push includes a website and a Facebook page, and Douceur has given interviews to Discovery and the New York Times among other media outlets. A few quotes tell the tale: Douceur: "I'm just hanging in there and I'm looking out my window and it's nice and clear bright and sunny. I'm saying to myself why isn't there a plane here to get me out of here today or even yesterday?" Raytheon spokesman: “During the winter period, extremely cold temperatures and high winds make an extraction dangerous for all involved, passengers as well as crew, and such an extraction is considered only in life-threatening conditions.” Douceur's niece: “My question back to them is, By what standard is a stroke considered a nonemergency?”