DIY surgery
(from Reuters - 10 January 2001)
LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A British woman says she has cured her chronic fatigue by resorting to do-it-yourself brain surgery and drilling a hole in her own head.
Heather Perry, 29, performed the ancient technique of trepanning -- cutting away a section of the scalp and drilling into the skull -- in her bid to overcome myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME, which leaves sufferers feeling permanently exhausted.
Perry's bid to rid herself of the inflammation of her brain and spinal chord, by drilling a two-centimetre hole to allow blood to flow more easily around the brain, almost went wrong when she drilled too far and penetrated a membrane protecting her brain tissue.
British doctors had refused to help Perry with the ancient procedure, so she flew to the United States where she was given medical advice and then did it herself. She said the 20-minute operation had improved her quality of life.
"I have no regrets. I was prone to occasional bouts of depression and felt something radical needed to be done," said Perry, who performed the operation under local anaesthetic in front of a mirror and a camera crew.
"I felt the effects immediately, I can't say they have been particularly dramatic but they are there. I generally feel better and there's definitely more mental clarity. I feel wonderful," she told reporters at her home in Gloucester, western England.
Trepanning was widely used in the Middle Ages to treat severe headaches and madness in the belief it would release evil spirits from the possessed.
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Comments
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: this is a true story!(17/04/2008)
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Fov.: I need to go change me underwear too <----Cryin(12/10/2006)
