An Austrian surgeon allegedly let his teenage daughter drill a hole in a patient’s skull.
Following a forestry accident in January, a 33-year-old man was been flown by air ambulance to Graz University Hospital, Styria, southeastern Austria, with serious head injuries, according to Kronen Zeitung, an Austrian newspaper.
He needed emergency surgery, but the doctor allegedly let his 13-year-old daughter take part in operating on him.
The newspaper reported that she even drilled a hole in the patient’s skull.
While the operation was said to have gone off without issue, the patient is still unable to work and investigations by the Graz public prosecutor’s officer against the entire surgical team are continuing.
It wasn’t until April that an anonymous complaint was logged to the public prosecutor’s office about the allegations, the newspaper reported.
It then took until July for the alleged victim to be informed by police, it added.
The surgeon and one other employee, a specialist who was present during the operation, are said to have been let go by the hospital.
‘You become guinea pigs’
The alleged victim initially learned about the case in the media before later being told by authorities he was a witness in an investigation.
“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,” the victim’s lawyer Peter Freiberger said.
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He added that everyone present during the surgery shared responsibility, and the hospital had not contacted the alleged victim following the revelations, according to Bild.
“There was no contact, no explanation or apology, nothing. That is simply undignified,” Mr Freiberger was quoted as saying.
A trauma surgery specialist said they “don’t understand” how anyone could allow a child to perform surgery under such circumstances.
“An operating theatre belongs to people who have a job to do there and no one else,” Manfred Bogner said.
He added: “And a child should not be given a drill and allowed to drill away at the bone of a seriously injured person.”
Sky News has contacted Graz University Hospital for comment.