A doctor in rural Australia used a handyman's power drill to bore a hole into the skull of a boy with a severe head injury, saving his life.
Nicholas Rossi was taken to hospital after falling from his bike and hitting his head on the pavement in Maryborough, Victoria state, on Friday.
The doctor on duty, Rob Carson, recognised that the boy, who was slipping in and out of consciousness, was experiencing potentially fatal bleeding on the brain and that he needed to relieve the pressure in Daniel's skull.
The small hospital was not equipped with neurological drills, so Carson sent for a household drill from the maintenance room.
He called a neurosurgeon in Melbourne for help, who talked Carson through the procedure – which he had never before attempted – by telling him where to aim the drill and how deep to go.
The boy's father, Michael Rossi, told the Australian newspaper: "Dr Carson came over to us and said, 'I am going to have to drill into [Nicholas] to relieve the pressure on the brain – we've got one shot at this and one shot only'."
He told Fairfax Radio today: "All of a sudden the emergency ward was turned into an operating theatre. We didn't see anything, but we heard the noises, heard the drill. It was just one of those surreal experiences."
The procedure took just over a minute, said Dr David Tynan, an anaesthetist who assisted Carson.
"It was pretty scary. You obviously worry, [are] you pushing hard enough or pushing too hard, but then when some blood came out after we'd gone through the skull, we realised we'd made the right decision," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Rossi was airlifted to a larger hospital in Melbourne and released yesterday, his 13th birthday.
Carson told the Australian: "It is not a personal achievement, it is just a part of the job and I had a very good team of people helping me."
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