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http://www.theage.com.au/national/handy-country-gp-saves-boy-with-home-drill-20090520-beg7.html
Handy: country GP saves boy with home drill
* Reko Rennie
* May 20, 2009 - 9:56AM
The father of the 12-year-old Victorian boy saved by a country doctor who used a household drill to bore a hole in his skull has praised hospital staff, saying the procedure was carried out ''like a military operation''.
Michael Rossi's son, Nicholas, was not wearing a helmet when he fell off his bike late on Friday while riding outside a friend's house in Maryborough, 170 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
But after he complained of a headache, his mother Karen, a trained nurse, took him to the district hospital, where he experienced spasms and periods of unconsciousness.
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The local GP, Rob Carson, recognised the symptoms of bleeding on the brain and realised he had only minutes to drill a hole to relieve the pressure on the boy's brain.
He obtained a drill from a maintenance room since the hospital was not equipped with neurological drills.
Over the telephone, Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace walked him through the procedure.
Mr Rossi told Radio 3AW today how Dr Carson told him and wife he had ''one shot at this''.
''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,'' Mr Rossi 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.
"He said Dr Carson picked the right spot and that astounded him, he said to have actually picked the right spot to drill and to use the Black and Decker (as he called it), it's just astounding, it took a lot of guts.
''He said he just can't believe it,'' Mr Rossi said.
"It was just like a military operation, there was no panic, they just went about their job in a professional manner.
Mr Rossi described the entire experience as "surreal''.
"We didn't actually see anything, we heard the noises, we heard the drill and it's just one of those surreal experiences, you don't know how you would react in that situation,'' Mr Rossi said.
Nicholas was airlifted to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital an hour later and was released on Tuesday - his 13th birthday.
Handy: country GP saves boy with home drill
* Reko Rennie
* May 20, 2009 - 9:56AM
The father of the 12-year-old Victorian boy saved by a country doctor who used a household drill to bore a hole in his skull has praised hospital staff, saying the procedure was carried out ''like a military operation''.
Michael Rossi's son, Nicholas, was not wearing a helmet when he fell off his bike late on Friday while riding outside a friend's house in Maryborough, 170 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
But after he complained of a headache, his mother Karen, a trained nurse, took him to the district hospital, where he experienced spasms and periods of unconsciousness.
View Larger Map
The local GP, Rob Carson, recognised the symptoms of bleeding on the brain and realised he had only minutes to drill a hole to relieve the pressure on the boy's brain.
He obtained a drill from a maintenance room since the hospital was not equipped with neurological drills.
Over the telephone, Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace walked him through the procedure.
Mr Rossi told Radio 3AW today how Dr Carson told him and wife he had ''one shot at this''.
''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,'' Mr Rossi 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.
"He said Dr Carson picked the right spot and that astounded him, he said to have actually picked the right spot to drill and to use the Black and Decker (as he called it), it's just astounding, it took a lot of guts.
''He said he just can't believe it,'' Mr Rossi said.
"It was just like a military operation, there was no panic, they just went about their job in a professional manner.
Mr Rossi described the entire experience as "surreal''.
"We didn't actually see anything, we heard the noises, we heard the drill and it's just one of those surreal experiences, you don't know how you would react in that situation,'' Mr Rossi said.
Nicholas was airlifted to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital an hour later and was released on Tuesday - his 13th birthday.
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