Country doctor uses household drill on patient's skull

David Pescovitz 8:56 am Wed May 20, 2009

Over at BB Gadgets, Rob posts the heartwarming tale of Rob Carson, a country doctor in Maryborough, Australia, who saved a 12-year-old boy's life by drilling a hole in his skull using a Black And Decker drill. The young fellow, Nicholas Rossi, had fallen off his bike and had a brain hemorrhage. Needing to relieve the pressure on the boy's brain, Carson grabbed a drill from the small hospital's maintenance closet and performed the trepanation. From The Age (fantastic photo from fox.out22's Flickr stream):

Over the telephone, Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace walked (Carson) through the procedure…

"They stabilised Nicholas to start off with (and) they put him under anaesthetic and then Dr Carson came out and he said that he had 'one shot at this' and said what he wants to do is to drill into Nicholas' head to relieve pressure on the brain," (Nicholas Rossi's father) said.

Dr Carson drilled a hole just below the bruise mark, above Nicholas' ear, until a blood clot came out. He used forceps to increase the hole to about a centimetre in diameter, then inserted a drainage tube to keep the blood flowing out of the boy's skull…

Nicholas was airlifted to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital an hour later and was released on Tuesday – his 13th birthday.

"Doctor Driller Saves Boy's Life"

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