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Doc uses household drill to save boy
A doctor in rural Australia used a household drill to bore a hole into the skull of a boy with a severe head injury, saving his life.
A doctor in rural Australia used a household drill to bore a hole into the skull of a boy with a severe head injury, saving his life.
Nicholas Rossi fell off his bike on Friday in Maryborough, hitting his head on the pavement, his family told The Australian. By the time Rossi got to the hospital, he was slipping in and out of consciousness.
The doctor on duty, Rob Carson, quickly recognized the 13-year-old was experiencing potentially fatal bleeding on the brain and knew he had only minutes to drill a hole through to relieve the pressure.
But the small hospital was not equipped with neurological drills so Carson grabbed a household drill. “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,’” the boy’s father, Michael Rossi, told The Australian.
Carson called a Melbourne neurosurgeon for help, and the specialist talked Carson through the procedure. Soon, a blood clot fell out, relieving the pressure in the boy’s brain.
