Did doctor/journalist Sanjay Gupta perform brain surgery on a wounded soldier in the heat of war? According to this recap of an interview of Dr Sanjay Gupta on the Dr Oz Show, there was an incident while he was acting as a journalist in a war zone in Iraq: > While in Iraq, he encountered a soldier with a critical head wound. He switched roles from reporter to surgeon to offer his expertise, but the field was not prepared for such intensive surgery. > > He improvised, using a Black and Decker drill bit to perform brain surgery on a soldier, who was then airlifted out of the danger zone for further treatment. Given that it is a Dr. Oz show, which makes me incredibly skeptical of anything he says, is there anything to substantiate this?

Yes.

See Time.com. They repeat a quote of his from a CNN article:

> As a neurosurgeon, I was asked to step back from my journalist's role to look at his gunshot wound to the head. Shortly thereafter, I was removing a bullet from his brain.

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

> I probably owe my life to Dr. Gupta.

(said by Jesus Vidana, who "learned that the Navy's so-called Devil Docs had asked CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon, to operate when Vidana was airlifted to a field hospital in Iraq").

And from Los Angeles Daily News:

> Gupta switched from reporter to doctor, grabbed a drill bit and went to work.