About a year ago we wrote about a physician from St George’s Hospital in London that brings his trusty home drill when performing charity brain surgery in Ukraine. From BBC we now learn of an Australian physician who, in an emergency, had to save a boy with intracranial bleeding and resorted to using a DeWalt drill. Our previous story featured a Bosch model, for those interested. To make the experience a bit more exciting, the physician, who has never performed the procedure, received instructions on what to do over the phone from a neurosurgeon that provided all the details.
The small hospital had no special tools, so the team had to use a household drill.
Dr Carson called the neurosurgeon who talked him through the procedure by telling him where to aim the drill and how deep to go.
“All of a sudden the emergency ward was turned into an operating theatre,” Michael Rossi [patient’s father] told Fairfax Radio.
“We didn’t see anything, but we heard the noises, heard the drill. It was just one of those surreal experiences.”
Dr David Tynan, an anaesthetist who helped Dr Carson, said the procedure took about a minute.
“It was pretty scary,” he told ABC.
“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.”
Here’s a quick video report from BBC:
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