A doctor in an Australian country town is being hailed as a life-saver after using a power drill to bore into a 12-year-old boy's skull.

According to Bernama , ABC News said Nicholas Rossi suffered bleeding to the brain and began drifting in and out of consciousness after falling from his bike near a friend's home in Maryborough, about 90km from Melbourne.

The boy was not wearing a helmet and the impact of his head hitting the pavement knocked him momentarily unconscious.

After realising the local hospital did not have the necessary surgical equipment, Dr Rob Carson used a drill from the maintenance room to bore into the boy's skull and relieve the pressure on his brain.

He was given advice on the phone by leading Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace.

Michael Rossi said his son would have died if Carson had not acted quickly.

"He came out and he saw us and he said he's only got one shot at it, and one shot only," he said.

"[He said] 'I'm going to drill into Nick's head and try and relieve the pressure'."

"And he said if we can relieve the pressure he's going to reach Melbourne via air ambulance in a lot better shape than if we don't try something."

After the accident, Rossi told the Australian newspaper that his son was "a bit delirious at first, but then he stood up and said he was fine."

Internal bleeding

When he got home, the boy kept complaining of a headache and his mother, Karen, a trained nurse, took him to the district hospital where Carson, a local GP, was on duty.

The doctor kept him for observation, but an hour later the boy began to drift in and out of consciousness and have spasms.

Carson recognised it as a sign of internal bleeding in the skull that places acute pressure on the brain.

The boy had fractured his skull and torn a tiny artery between the bone and the brain just above his ear.

Carson then told Rossi to get the Black and Decker drill from his shed.

Anaesthetist David Tynan who assisted with the procedure said Carson saved the boy's life. "He seems to have made a marvelous recovery."

The emergency "operation" was yesterday hailed by a leading neurosurgeon as "one of the gutsiest life-saving efforts imaginable".