Doctor Performs Brain Surgery with Store Drill

[Guest MrRant]

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Lacking the proper instruments, a Peruvian doctor at a state hospital in the Andean highlands used a drill and pliers to perform brain surgery on a man who had been injured in a fight, the doctor said on Thursday.

 

"We have no (neurosurgical) instruments at the hospital. ... He was dying, so I had no choice but to run to a hardware store to buy a drill and use the pliers that I fix my car with, of course after sterilizing them," Cesar Venero told Reuters in a telephone interview.

 

The patient, Centeno Quispe, 47, had arrived at the hospital in Andahuaylas, 240 miles southeast of Lima, after being hit in the head with a metal object in a street fight, Venero said.

 

"I drilled holes in his skull in a circle, leaving spaces of 5 millimeters, took out the bone with the pliers and removed the clots that were putting pressure on his brain," he said.

 

Andahuaylas is one of the poorest regions of Peru, a country in which more than half its 27 million people live below the poverty line.

 

Venero, who earns $430 a month, said he had used tools from a hardware store on five previous occasions but for less serious operations.

 

Quispe was making a good recovery in a hospital in Peru's capital, Lima.

[Guest Choken One]

Talk about a bad HMO

[Guest Youth N Asia]

That's great.

 

JAY: "Motherfucker's like MacGyver. No, motherfucker's BETTER then MacGyver."

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

Dammit...I can't compete with YNA's referencing of Mallrats AND MacGuyver.

[Guest Miss Independant]

Black and Decker presents the first truly ALL purpose drill. Good for every home improvement project and any labodomies (sp so bad) you've been putting off. Comes with rubber grip for spurting oil or blood, whatever comes first.

 

God bless America... I think.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

This was in Peru.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Anybody ever seen the movie, Pi?

[Guest Miss Independant]

I know it was in Peru. God bless America as in we don't do surgery on each other with objects that have to be de-greased before hand.

[Guest DrTom]

Actually, emergency tracheotomies with ball-point pens aren't terribly uncommon. It's not the same as a power drill being used for brain surgery, of course, but there it is.