A surgeon has been accused of allowing his 13-year-old daughter to drill a hole into a patient’s skull during an emergency operation.
Earlier this year on January 13, a man was involved in a forestry accident and was rushed to Graz University Hospital in Austria via air ambulance.
Once at hospital, the patient was rushed into emergency surgery at around 2.45pm, however, his skull was reportedly operated on not by a medical professional, but a neurosurgeon’s teenage daughter.
Surgeons can resolve to drilling a hole in a patient’s skull for multiple reasons.
If a head injury or trauma has occurred and caused fluid or blood to build up in the brain and put pressure on tissue, drilling a hole can help drain this fluid and relieve pressure. Drilling a hole may also be an action considered if an object has ended up lodged in the skull.
It’s not stated why the patient required emergency surgery and while the incident took place in January, it wasn’t until April 26 when an anonymous complaint was submitted to Graz’s prosecutor’s office that an investigation was eventually launched, local media outlet Kronen Zeitung reports.
On May 25, the doctors involved in the operation – reported by Sky News as being the neurosurgeon and one other employee – were dismissed without notice.
And it was only two months after that on July 8 when the patient themselves realized what had happened – allegedly finding out from media reports – after not being able to remember anything at the time.
The patient required emergency surgery (Getty Stock Images/ Arctic Images)
The patient survived the operation, however, Kronen Zeitung reports they were in intensive care for the following 11 days and remain unable to work.
The patient’s lawyer, Peter Freiberger, is now suing for damages.
Freiberger said: “You lie there. Unwilling, unconscious, and become guinea pigs. There’s probably no other way to put it… that’s not possible. You can’t do that.
“There was no contact, no explanation or apology, nothing. That is simply undignified.”
Trauma surgery specialist Manfred Bogner emphasized to Sky News ‘a child’ should never be ‘given a drill and allowed to drill away at the bone of a seriously injured person,’ adding he doesn’t ‘understand’ how such an incident was ever allowed to happen.
He resolved: “An operating theatre belongs to people who have a job to do there and no one else.”
UNILAD has contacted Graz University Hospital for comment.