A surgeon is under investigation for allowing her 13-year-old daughter to drill a hole in a patient’s skull.
Following an accident in an Austrian forest, a 33-year-old man was flown to University Hospital Graz with serious head injuries in January.
The female neurosurgeon, who has not been named, is alleged to have allowed her daughter to actively take part in the emergency surgery, including drilling open the patient’s skull, according to Austria’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper.
The surgery was completed without issue.
However in April, an anonymous complaint lodged with the public prosecutor’s office in Graz – the regional capital of Styria, Austria’s second-largest state – prompted an investigation.
The patient reportedly first read about the incident in the media only to be informed by police in July that he was the victim.
“You lie there, unwilling, unconscious and become [a] guinea pig. There’s probably no other way to put it… that’s not possible. You can’t do that,” the victim’s lawyer Peter Freiberger said.
Girl ‘actively participated’
The neurosurgeon has been dismissed along with another specialist who was present during the operation. Both are being investigated on suspicion of causing serious bodily harm.
Five other people who were in the operating room are also under investigation for “failure to prevent an act that is punishable by law”.
Mr Freiberger is now looking to sue the surgical team and demand compensation for pain and suffering of the victim, who he said has been unable to return to work.
The Styrian Hospital Association (Kages), which operates the hospital, has neither confirmed nor denied whether the teenager drilled the hole.
In a statement at the end of May, Kages admitted that the girl had “actively participated in the operation”, but stressed that the procedure was carried out without complications.
Mr Freiberger said that everyone present during the surgery shared responsibility and added that neither Kages nor the hospital had contacted the victim.
“There has been no contact, no explanation or apology, nothing. That is simply undignified,” he told German newspaper Bild.
University Hospital Graz has been contacted for comment.