Dr Sanjay Gupta travels to Nepal to cover earthquake for CNN - and ends up performing brain surgery with a SAW on a teenage girl crushed by a wall

  • Gupta is in Kathmandu to cover the aftermath of deadly earthquake
  • The hospitals are so overstretched that he was asked to perform brain surgery on a teenager who had been crushed by a wall in the quake
  • He said the girl is now doing well - but she is just one of many victims
  • 4,352 people are believed to have died, including at least four Americans, and more than 6,000 suffered injuries 

CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta has abandoned his journalistic duties to scrub up and perform brain surgery on a teenager in an overstretched hospital in Nepal.

The neurosurgeon, who is in Kathmandu to cover the aftermath of Saturday's deadly earthquake, performed a craniotomy on the 15-year-old girl, Sandhya Chalise, after a wall of her family's home fell on her as she collected water outside.

Sandhya, who lives in a more remote area of the country, only reached Kathmandu's Bir Hospital two days after the 7.8-magnitude quake and by that point, blood had collected in the top of her brain, CNN reported.

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Put to work: Dr Sanjay Gupta (second left), the chief medical correspondent for CNN, was asked by a Nepalese hospital to perform brain surgery on a 15-year-girl who was injured in the earthquake

Put to work: Dr Sanjay Gupta (second left), the chief medical correspondent for CNN, was asked by a Nepalese hospital to perform brain surgery on a 15-year-girl who was injured in the earthquake

Quick-thinking: Gupta, center at the hospital, said the girl was just one of many people walking through the doors with head injuries at the overstretched hospital. More than 6,000 people were injured

Quick-thinking: Gupta, center at the hospital, said the girl was just one of many people walking through the doors with head injuries at the overstretched hospital. More than 6,000 people were injured

'I was asked to do this by the doctors there at the hospital,' Dr Gupta said during a telephone interview with the network. 'I think they literally need another set of hands because the demand is so high.' 

During the procedure, he was forced to used basic equipment, such as a saw rather than an electric drill, and sterile water and iodine from a bottle, rather than a proper scrub sink, he told CNN.

Following the operation, she is 'doing well', Gupta said, 'but her story is unfortunately very typical'. 

After the surgery, an eight-year-old girl arrived at the hospital needing a similar operation. 

More than 4,300 people are believed to have been killed in the earthquake, but Nepalese officials have speculated that as many as 10,000 could have died.

Around 6,000 have been injured and are pouring into the hospitals, which are struggling to keep up with the demand. 

'I've seen a lot of situations around the world, and this is as bad as I've ever seen it,' Gupta said.

Hurt: Another child with a similar head injury, pictured, came to the hospital shortly after the operation

Hurt: Another child with a similar head injury, pictured, came to the hospital shortly after the operation

Helping hand: As well as working for CNN, Gupta is a neurosurgeon at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta

Helping hand: As well as working for CNN, Gupta is a neurosurgeon at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta

'They need more resources, they need more personnel here right now, and they're expecting many more patients as these rescue operations go on. They're barely able to keep up right now.'

As well as serving as CNN's chief medical correspondent, Gupta is a neurosurgeon at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta.

It is not the first time the married father-of-three, 45, has performed surgery while on a reporting job.

In 2003, while covering the medical demands of the invasion of Iraq, he performed emergency surgery on U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

And while reporting in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, he and other doctors removed a piece of concrete from a 12-year-old girl's skull aboard aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

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