Did a 12-Year-Old Really Drill Into a Patient’s Skull?

Did a 12-year-old actually act in brain surgery and drill into the patient's skull?

The medical scandal in Austria has really sent shockwaves around the medical world.

According to multiple reports, a female brain surgeon is standing in court accused of causing an acting-out-of-character moment when she allowed her 12-year-old daughter to drill the skull of an unconscious patient during an early 2024 emergency procedure.

The strange incident has sent shockwaves around the University Hospital Graz, where the senior surgeon and her junior colleague have since been fired.

The Surgery in Question

The patient - an injured farm worker due to a falling tree branch - was flown in for emergency brain surgery in January 2024.

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Needed at the end of the operation was to drill a small hole in the skull for a probe to measure intracranial pressure.

That's when things took an abrupt turn for the worse. It was then that the surgeon's daughter — who, reports said, had begged to witness the surgery — was given surgical scrubs and joined the operation.

Prosecutors say she was then taught how to use a surgical drill — and allowed to use it.

'A Huge Mistake'

Austrian prosecutor Julia Steiner told the court the girl drilled into the patient’s skull “alone and without help,” according to The Kronen Zeitung.

That is, however, disputed by the defense, which insists a junior male surgeon was also present and “always in control of the drill.”

The junior doctor, however, confessed under oath: “I didn’t refuse her when she asked to help — which was a huge mistake.”

He also claimed that the senior surgeon, who was the girl's mother, had boasted afterward that her daughter had just made her "first drill hole."

The lawyer for the surgeon acknowledged that the comment was “flippant” and “a big mistake,” but denied she ever really had the girl operate on the patient.

What Comes Next?

Both doctors have already lost their jobs. If the court determines that the 12-year-old did take part in the drilling, the duo could be convicted of corporal injury for permitting an unlicensed person to treat a patient — a crime that carries up to a year in prison or a fine.

The patient himself, now recovered, was unable to testify owing to illness. The girl herself also refused to testify.

Complications from the OR

The head of neurosurgery at the hospital, Stefan Wolfsberger, didn't mince any words in court:

"That's terrible. People from every continent are calling me about this. Now patients are afraid because of this."

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"Respect for our patients is our damned duty," he concluded.

The trial, which has been adjourned to be resumed on Dec. 10, but the damage to reputations — and public trust — may already be irreparable.