Dr Bart Huges of the International Trepanation Advocacy Society is the one Doug is thinking of. He didn't die, and nor did Joey Mellen or Amanda Feilding (as far as I can see from this transcript, many trepanners may have been driven into having their heads drilled through the frustration of having their names constantly misspelled). There is even a film of the process called "Heartbeat in the Brain".
best dd
PS: Dr Huges (a Dutch native) gave an interview to the Sunday People in the 1960s, explaining his views on the merits of trepanation and LSD and was apparently quite surprised to see what he thought was a sympathetic and good-natured chat appear under the headline "THIS DANGEROUS IDIOT MUST BE THROWN OUT OF THE COUNTRY".
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I've been using the drill holes thing ever since I read in an Esquire Dubious Achievements award feature in the late 1960s or early 1970s that some British guy had killed himself by drilling 8 holes in his head. Their headline was "This guy drilled seven holes in his head and lived!"
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