I just read through the story, and not quite - he got the catheter started partway, and then the nurse who he'd tricked into thinking she would be the test subject (he needed her to get supplies) walked him to radiology so he see what he was doing when he got to the tricky parts.

Yes. I read about this when I was in medical school and was astounded at his boldness. FWIW he won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his accomplishment.