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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Aussie GP does brain surgery with household drill |
| 2009-05-20 |
| The astonishing procedure took place after Nicholas Rossi, 13, fell off his bike in the small rural town of Maryborough in Victoria and hit his head. He was not wearing a helmet, and the impact knocked him momentarily unconscious. The boy was kept under observation, but one hour later, he started drifting in and out of consciousness. The injury was the same that recently led to the death of actress Natasha Richardson after a skiing accident. The hospital was not equipped with a surgical drill. Instead, Dr Carson had to use the next best thing - a household drill found in the hospital's maintenance cupboard. He disinfected the drill and, under the guidance of a Melbourne neurosurgeon over the phone, used it to bore into Nicholas's skull to release the blood clot. Nicholas was released from hospital on Tuesday. |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |
| #6 I don't know whether I'd rather have a bottle in front of me or a frontal lobotomy. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2009-05-20 18:17 |
| #5 Some of the Indians of Peru were knowledgable of brain surgery, and apparently did it frequently. The Incas crushed them, and didn't continue to do brain surgery. The Spanish conquered the Incas, and it wasn't until the 19th Century that the people of Latin America were re-introduced to brain surgery. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-05-20 17:43 |
| #4 Correction to #2: It was FRENCH King Henry II, in 1559 |
| Posted by: mom 2009-05-20 16:35 |
| #3 Trephaning goes back to the Paleolithic, of course it was to let the devils out, but it may have dones just this on occasion... |
| Posted by: Spereger Untervehr6555 2009-05-20 15:23 |
| #2 Ironically, this was the very first discovery ever made about brain surgery--that you absolutely must relieve the pressure of bleeding or the patient will die immediately. English King Henry II (d. 1599) had a splinter impaled in his brain while jousting, but was still alive. The royal surgeon knew that to leave it in was certain, immediate death. But nobody knew what would happen were it to be removed. So in consultation with two other doctors, they removed the splinter, and Henry II lived another 9 days. The next major advances in brain surgery didn't happen until the US Civil War, because until then, brain injuries either killed immediately, or were not conducive to surgery. The invention of the mini ball changed that, often tearing away a chunk of skull, but leaving the brain underneath relatively unharmed. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-05-20 12:39 |
| #1 Hat tip to Dr. Carson who had the courage to ....drill here - drill now! Doubt it would have happened in the lawyer enriched USA. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-05-20 07:48 |