"jps" wrote in message
...

They should add this skill to the list:

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - 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.

"Dr. Carson came over to us and said, 'I am going to have to drill
into (Nicholas) to relieve the pressure on the brain - we've got one
shot at this and one shot only,"' Michael Rossi told The Australian
newspaper.

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.

"All of a sudden the emergency ward was turned into an operating
theater," Michael Rossi told Fairfax Radio on Wednesday. "We didn't
see anything, but we heard the noises, heard the drill. It was just
one of those surreal experiences."

The procedure took just over a minute, said anesthetist Dr. David
Tynan, who assisted Carson.

"It was pretty scary. 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 realized we'd made the right
decision," Tynan told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Rossi was airlifted to a larger hospital in Melbourne and released
Tuesday - his 13th birthday.

Carson was modest about his feat.

"It is not a personal achievement, it is just a part of the job and I
had a very good team of people helping me," he told The Australian.

Michael Rossi was more effusive.

"He saved our son's life," he said.

Carson did not immediately respond to messages left Wednesday by The
Associated Press. The hospital said he was busy delivering a baby.

Same thing on ER. Maybe he learned it there.