Tool Time

A doctor in rural Australia used a handyman's power 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 the small Victoria state city of Maryborough, hitting his head on the pavement, his father, Michael, said Wednesday. 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 boy was experiencing potentially fatal bleeding on the brain and knew he had only minutes to make a hole in the boy's skull to relieve the pressure.

But the small hospital was not equipped with neurological drills — so Carson sent for a household drill from the maintenance room.

Carson called a neurosurgeon in the state capital of Melbourne for help, who talked Carson through the procedure — which he had never before attempted — by telling him where to aim the drill and how deep to go.