A brain surgeon in Austria is currently on trial after she was accused of letting her 12-year-old daughter drill a hole in a patient’s skull. The unnamed neurosurgeon has denied this.
The incident happened at the University Hospital Graz in January 2024, where the unnamed 33-year-old was performing brain surgery on a farm worker who had been flown to the hospital with serious head trauma after a tree branch fell on his head.
Her 12-year-old daughter reportedly wanted to watch the operation take place, and she agreed, telling the court: “I didn’t get into any lengthy discussions, but let myself be persuaded to say, ‘Yes, come on then’.”
She gave her scrubs and let her into the room. After the surgery was completed, another small procedure had to be done which required drilling a hole into a skull. The surgeon claimed she left this to her junior colleague and went to take a phone call, leaving her daughter with him.
According to court records obtained by Austrian paper The Kronen Zeitung, the junior surgeon claims he let the 12-year-old put her hand over his as he held the drill. The girl’s mother told other doctors at the hospital that her daughter had “just drilled her first hole”. She later said this was a joke, claiming it was just her “bloody stupid maternal pride”.
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“He allowed her to put her hand on his hand while he was operating the drill, but that’s not relevant to the criminal proceedings.” Both of them have since been fired,” the surgeon’s lawyer said. He added: “She never drilled alone! And in the end, we can all be proud of the outcome of the operation.”
The neurosurgeon admitted it was a mistake letting her daughter into the operating theatre, but firmly denies that she was the one holding the drill.
Prosecutor Julia Steiner told the court: “She took the 12-year-old girl into the operating theatre, where she drilled a hole in the exposed skull on her own and without assistance. Before doing so, the defendant explained how the drill worked. What would have happened if the drill had been defective and had not stopped automatically after breaking through the skull bone?”
Bernhard Lehofer, the neurosurgeon’s lawyer, clapped back, saying: “The child did not drill.”
The court case is currently still ongoing. It has been adjourned until 10th December, 2025.
Online, people are saying the whole thing is “wrong on every level” and all the doctors involved should have their medical licences taken away.
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