A surgeon allowed his 13-year-old daughter to drill into a patient's skull (4 photos)

An Austrian neurosurgeon allowed his 13-year-old daughter to drill a hole in a patient's skull during an emergency operation. The doctor was fired after a prosecutor's investigation and is underway.





The doctor, whose identity has not been disclosed, found himself at the center of a scandal after a patient learned of the incident in the surgical department of the University Hospital of Graz.

On January 13, the 33-year-old man was seriously injured in a logging operation and was airlifted to a hospital in Styria in southeastern Austria.



The neurosurgeon allowed his teenage daughter to participate in the operation and help with the manipulations. For example, she made a hole in the victim's skull. The man survived, but spent 11 days in intensive care and is still unable to work.

The outrageous case only became known on April 26, when an anonymous complaint was filed with the Graz prosecutor's office. An investigation was soon launched, Kronen Zeitung reports, but the patient himself only learned about the incident in July, when he saw reports in the media.





Peter Freiberger, the victim's lawyer, filed a lawsuit for damages.

He said: "You end up unconscious on a surgeon's table and become a guinea pig. There's no other word for it... It's beyond the pale. It's just unacceptable."

"There were no calls, no attempts to clarify the situation, no apologies. It was unbecoming."



Trauma surgeon Manfred Bogner added: "The operating room is where doctors and medical staff work. No one else is allowed in there. And of course you can't give a child a drill and let them drill into a person's bones."

Graz Public Prosecutor Hansjörg Bacher confirmed that the neurosurgeon and five other people involved in the operation are under investigation for causing grievous bodily harm.