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Brain Surgeon Accused of Letting Her 12-Year-Old Daughter Drill into Patient's Skull During Emergency Surgery
By Becca Longmire Published on October 16, 2025 06:12AM EDT
A brain surgeon in Austria has denied letting her 12-year-old daughter drill into a patient's head during emergency surgery, according to reports.
The incident reportedly occurred in January 2024 after a farm worker was flown to the country's University Hospital Graz after a tree branch fell on his head, according to U.K. papers The Times and The Telegraph.
On Tuesday, Oct. 14, a year after the incident came to light, the trial against the female surgeon, who hasn't been named, began, as reported by the Austrian newspaper, The Kronen Zeitung.
The surgeon's daughter was reportedly interested in medicine and pleaded with her mother to let her witness the operation, according to The Times, citing the trial. The youngster was allegedly handed surgical scrubs and joined the team.
Prosecutor Julia Steiner alleged, "She took the twelve-year-old girl into the operating theater, where she drilled a hole into the exposed skullcap alone and without help. Beforehand, the accused explained the function of the drilling device," The Kronen Zeitung stated, per a translated article.
The incident allegedly occurred when a minor procedure — which involved inserting a probe to measure intracranial pressure, that required drilling a hole into the skull — had to be performed at the end of the patient's surgery, The Times reported.
The female surgeon allegedly left the procedure to a male junior colleague and moved away from the table to make a phone call, and there are conflicting reports about what happened next, the paper stated.
“My biggest mistake was letting her go to the operating table," the female surgeon said, as judge Gundula Neudeck responded, “Your biggest mistake was probably taking her there in the first place; a child has no business being there," according to The Telegraph.
Both the junior and senior surgeons have been fired, and if the court finds that the daughter did operate the drill during the procedure, the pair could face a potential conviction for causing bodily harm by letting an untrained person treat a patient, the paper noted. This typically carries a prison sentence of up to a year or a fine.
The junior surgeon claimed that the daughter did take part in the drilling after asking if she could help, per The Telegraph.
“I was surprised by the question, but I didn’t refuse it, which was a huge mistake,” the junior surgeon said in court, alleging that he believed that the senior surgeon had approved it, according to the outlet.
He insisted in court that the girl had placed her hand on the drill, but that he “was always in control of the pedal [that controlled the speed] and always in control of the drill,” The Telegraph noted.
“You are proud that you have taken good care of the patient, but you only [realize] later that a mistake has been made that is morally and ethically unacceptable," the junior surgeon said in court, per the outlet.
The female surgeon has been accused of bragging to her colleagues that her daughter had just made her first drill hole, according to The Kronen Zeitung.
Defense lawyer, Bernhard Lehofer, admitted his client's "flippant remark" was "a big mistake," The Kronen Zeitung reported.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Steiner said, "Something like that simply cannot be played down. What would have happened if the drill had been defective and had not stopped automatically after breaking through the skull bone?" adding that the incident was "incredibly disrespectful."
Lehofer told the court that his client had "saved the lives of countless people for 20 years," and knows "it was not a good idea to take her child into surgery," the paper noted.
The lawyer stated that "the operation went wonderfully and the patient is doing very well." He also insisted that the girl never drilled on her own and just put her hand on the device, per the outlet.
The surgeon admitted bragging that her daughter had drilled her first hole, telling the court she did it out of "stupid motherly pride!" according to The Kronen Zeitung.
The anesthetist present during the surgery claimed she had witnessed four hands on the drill, two of which were the daughter’s, according to The Times.
Dr. Stefan Wolfsberger, who is the head of neurosurgery at the hospital, said in court, “This is terrible. The case is known all over the world, people from every continent are talking to me about it," adding, per the paper, “Our neurosurgery enjoys such a high reputation. Now, patients are afraid because of this. But respect for our patients is our damned duty.”
The girl herself declined to testify, and the patient was unable to testify on Tuesday due to illness, according to The Times. The case has been adjourned until Dec. 10.
The University Hospital Graz and Austria's Federal Ministry of Justice didn't immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. PEOPLE has also attempted to reach out to defense lawyer, Bernhard Lehofer.
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