>" There's a town in Alaska where you need to have your appendix removed in order to live there because the nearest hospital is 625 miles away."

Your link talks about Antarctica, not Alaska.

I'm pretty sure you can learn to remove your own appendix, how hard can it be?

If memory serves, the policy mandating the removal of the appendix before travel to Antarctica was born after the sole physician living there had no other choice than to perform an appendectomy on himself.

Wikipedia: The operation started at 02:00 local time on 1 May with the help of a driver and meteorologist, who provided instruments and held a mirror so Rogozov could observe areas not directly visible. Rogozov lay in a semi-reclining position, half-turned to his left side. A solution of 0.5% novocaine was used for local anesthesia of the abdominal wall. Rogozov made a 10–12 cm incision of the abdominal wall, but while opening the peritoneum he accidentally cut the cecum and had to suture it. Then he exposed the appendix. According to his report, the appendix was found to have a dark stain at its base, and Rogozov estimated it would have burst within a day. The appendix was resected and antibiotics were applied directly into the peritoneal cavity. General weakness and nausea developed about 30–40 minutes after the start of the operation so that short pauses for rest were repeatedly needed after that. By about 04:00 the operation was complete.

I know you're joking, but someone has actually done that: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/antar...

You mean Antarctica.

But it is a fascinating story, thank you for bringing it up!

The linked article is about a town in Antarctica, not Alaska.