Mental Floss: "11 Scientists Who Experimented on Themselves".
Werner Forssmann: In 1929 in the basement of the Eberswaled Hospital in Germany, surgical resident Werner Forssmann inserted a ureteral catheter tube into his elbow, feeding it through a vein up to his heart. He used a mirror as his assistant, since he had restrained his nurse to the operating table. He then took an x-ray of his chest (at left) to determine the catheter had indeed made it to the right atrium. Instead of praise, Forssmann was met with condemnation. This rejection led him to abandon cardiology for urology, but he was later rewarded with the Nobel Prize in 1956.
Stubbins Ffirth is number 11. Whoa.