Bizarre can’t even begin to describe the incident involving a 12-year-old girl allegedly drilling a hole into an exposed skullcap. The incident reportedly took place in January 2024 at Austria’s University Hospital Graz, where an Austrian brain surgeon has been accused of letting her 12-year-old daughter drill into a patient’s head during surgery, unsupervised.
Per U.K. publications like The Times and The Telegraph, the case is still on and the minor operated on a patient, a farm worker, who was rushed to the hospital after a tree branch fell on his head.
Shocking case in Austria: A neurosurgeon allegedly let her 12-year-old daughter drill a hole in a patient’s skull during surgery in Graz.
The 33-year-old patient needed a small opening to measure intracranial pressure after a head injury. Prosecutors say the child, with her… pic.twitter.com/J4DV5tASlB
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 20, 2025
According to the reports, the twelve-year-old, who was happens to be the surgeon’s daughter, reportedly requested her mother to let her watch the operation. She was also allegedly handed surgical scrubs and joined the surgical procedure.
At one point the surgeon admitted that it was her daughter who had drilled the first hole in the skull. She said it was a consequence of her “stupid motherly pride.”
Speaking to a local newspaper in Austria , 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 UK papers stated that the female surgeon who was in charge, left a male junior colleague to monitor it for a brief phone call. “My biggest mistake was letting her go to the operating table,” the female surgeon admitted.
Responding to the female surgeon, the judge replied, “Your biggest mistake was probably taking her there in the first place; a child has no business being there.”
Post the incident, both the junior as well as the senior surgeons were fired. Meanwhile, the junior surgeon admitted that the 12-year-old was in fact in the operating room. “I was surprised by the question, but I didn’t refuse it, which was a huge mistake,” the junior surgeon said. He also told the court that he “was always in control of the pedal and always in control of the drill.”
During the court session, the junior surgeon added, “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.”
If it is proven to the court that the 12-year-old also operated during the surgery, drilling the skullcap, the duo could face a prison sentence of up to a year or a fine. They could be convicted for causing bodily harm by letting an untrained person treat a patient without any supervision.
Calling the incident “incredibly disrespectful,” 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?”
Meanwhile, defense lawyer Bernhard Lehofer has claimed that their client “saved the lives of countless people for 20 years,” and even admitted that “it was not a good idea to take her child into surgery.” The lawyer went on to add, “The operation went wonderfully and the patient is doing very well.”
As of now, the girl has decided to testify, and the case has been adjourned until December 10.
