Thursday, May 21, 2009
Meatball surgery
A country GP has described how he saved a 12-year-old Victorian boy by using a household drill to bore a hole in the child's skull.
''I suppose you would have to put it up with one of the highlights of your career, having had a career in country hospitals,'' Dr Carson said.
Its too bad Dr. Carson and his drill weren't on hand to save Natasha Richardson.
5 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Thu May 21, 06:06:00 PM:
A surgeon I know did the same thing with a hunting knife when they were in the wilderness. A member of their hunting party fell, striking a rock and sustaining an epidural hematoma. The surgeon arrived on the scene, diagnosed the location of the clot by examining the pupils and doing a neurological assessment and performed an emergency evacuation of the clot in the woods. The guy survived.
I suspect he wasn't a lawyer.
By Purple Avenger, at
Thu May 21, 06:49:00 PM:
I had a cousin die due to brain swelling from a car crash.
The guy did what he needed to do.
By TigerHawk, at
Thu May 21, 10:59:00 PM:
Two points that perhaps make this story a bit less dramatic than the wire service would like. First, drilling holes in the head to release pressure in the "closed box" of the skull was once called "trepanning", and it has been practiced for a very long time. Have you seen the "brain surgery scene" in "Master and Commander"? Second, the disposable drills used by neurosurgeons to open holes to monitor or relieve pressure are essentially the same same as manual drills sold to consumers in hardware stores. The only differences are the drills and bits are sterile packaged and are traceable, so if there is a problem they can be traced consistently with FDA quality systems regulations.
By JPMcT, at
Fri May 22, 06:25:00 AM:
Along those lines, a neurosurgeon boddy of mine tells the story of a patient who complained about his bill for evacuating a hematoma and wanted an itemization for the $5000 charge.
The reply:
Drilling a hole in your head - $10
Knowing when to stop drilling - $4990
By billm99uk, at
Fri May 22, 08:38:00 AM:
I love the way every version of this story I've seen includes a big picture of a (completely unrelated) power drill in case their readers don't know what one is...
