A case involving a female neurosurgeon, who allegedly allowed her 12-year-old daughter to drill a hole into a patient’s skull, has sparked widespread concern in Austria. The incident took place at University Hospital Graz during brain surgery on a 33-year-old patient who had suffered severe head trauma from a tree-branch accident. While the surgeon denies letting her child drill into the skull, she admitted that permitting her daughter near the operating table was her “biggest mistake.” At the end of an otherwise uneventful procedure, a probe had to be placed to monitor intracranial pressure.
The senior surgeon stated that she instructed her junior colleague to perform the procedure while she stepped away from the operating table to make a phone call. However, conflicting accounts suggest the child may have touched the drill under supervision, raising serious ethical and legal…
