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 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.
The alleged victim initially learned about the case in the media before later being told by authorities he was a witness in an investigation.
When the hands on experience goes too far
Jfc, having the girl in the room at all is a liability, let alone letting her touch the patient.
I hope this guy’s malpractice lawyer has good heart meds.
13 year old girls aren’t qualified brain surgeons any more than 13 year old boys
In the US (the most sue happy place on earth) the guy probably wouldn’t get a payout.
At least from reading the article, it infers the surgery and everything done went off without any issues. In the US, if you want to sue and win, you have to show that damages were done to you.
So while it was wildly inappropriate to have a 13 year old there or touching a patient at all, the patient would need to show that it caused damages.
I’m no lawyer but I think drilling into someone’s head without permission might still count as assault.
According to a different source shared by @giriinthejungle, the attorney who has taken the case is suing the entire operating unit and expects whoever instructed the girl to drill the hole to be liable for assault. That is also the estimation of the chief regional patient attorney, provided the incident happened as reported by the media.
The neurosurgeon as well as one other doctor have already been let go by the hospital.
Police have not yet charged anyone, their investigation is still ongoing as of the time of the article (2024-08-26).
When “Bring Your Child to Work Day” goes wrong.
My understanding is that the drill is fixtured in position in procedures as delicate as this, so that it really can’t move and drill anywhere except where it needs to. Likely why Dad thought (wrongly) that it was harmless.
I was thinking this as well. Headlines, no matter the story, are frequently meant to rage bait people.
Is it pretty messed up? Yeah, I’d say that meets the definition. Was the guy actually in danger? Idk? I’m not a rocket scientist.
Edit: Side note, I just saw a “cranial fixation system” for the first time where I work about a week ago. I do not work in a medical field so this is just a really strange coincidence. I won’t be elaborating on my career.
Surgical tech here!
In craniotomies, once the skull is exposed the doc will use basically a handheld dremel to punch a few holes, then connect the dots with a side-biting bit.
Could she have done the initial drill in such a manner? Mounted drill etc
I’ve never seen a mounted drill in the OR (though I imagine there is an option for it - bed-mounted instruments and equipment are pretty common).
Here’s a video that kinda shows how craniotomies go - this is just an animation, nothing gory. The drill in the animation is different from the onces I’ve seen used for cranis (pistol-shaped vs just a cylinder like the one I linked earlier) but either way, it’s very much a hand-held device.
Even micro surgery like when we’re drilling in a tympanoplasty or cochlear implant placement - literally done under a microscope - it’s still just a little dremmel looking thing.
It likely was harmless, since the article infers ther surgery went well. It was just inappropriate and looks bad. When suing in the US you have to show damages. The patient may have a hard time winning his case.
I think that’s an entirely wrong starting point. Operating on a person without their informed consent is bodily harm. You have to prove the patient agreed. (Ignoring for the moment situations where they can’t.)
The patient never agreed to a surgery in part performed by that kid, but to one performed entirely by trained professionals.
But there was no bodily harm. If the procedure had failed or an infection happened there would be, but from the light bit of info in the article, the procedure was successful. No damages incurred due to the 13 year olds involvement.
Not the first news story regarding weird stuff happening while people are under anesthesia.
