Austrian doctor denies letting 12‑year‑old daughter drill patient’s skull

The surgeon allowed her daughter to scrub in for surgery at Austria's University Hospital Graz. Photo / University Hospital Graz

An Austrian doctor is denying allegations she allowed her daughter to drill a hole in a patient’s head.

In January 2024, the mother allegedly let her 12-year-old assist with a brain surgery in Styria, southeastern Austria, the Telegraph reports.

The local court heard this week how the daughter pleaded to be allowed to scrub in as University Hospital Graz surgeons operated on a farm worker.

After successfully treating the man’s serious head trauma, the medical professional allegedly encouraged the girl to help assess his levels of intracranial pressure.

The senior surgeon then boasted to nurses her daughter had drilled her first hole, a comment she later claimed was a lie borne of her “bloody stupid maternal pride”.

She told the court her “biggest mistake was letting her go to the operating table”.

But the woman’s junior colleague admitted the girl helped him drill the hole - although he said he was “always in control” of the tool.

“You are proud that you have taken good care of the patient, but you only realise later that a mistake has been made that is morally and ethically unacceptable”, he emotionally told the court.

Prosecutor Julia Steiner said the incident showed “incredible disrespect towards the patient”.

“What would have happened if the drill had been defective and had not stopped automatically after breaking through the skull bone?”

By August of that year, the victim’s lawyer Peter Freiberger said the man still had not been apologised to, according to Sky News.

“You lie there. Unwilling, unconscious, and become guinea pigs”, Freiberger told Bild, “there’s probably no other way to put it...that’s not possible. You can’t do that.”

The 33-year-old had reportedly read about the case online, only to later be informed by police he was himself the victim in July of that year.

He was not able to testify in court because of illness, the Telegraph reports, while the girl declined to participate in the hearing.

Both surgeons were fired following the incident and now face the possibility of jail time if it is proven the child was permitted to participate.