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Austrian surgeon 'let teenage daughter drill hole in patient's skull' (news.sky.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

107 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 227 points 2 months ago (6 children)

...bro what the fuck was everyone else in the OR doing? Craniotomies take a full team of people, and every single person in that room should have lost their shit when a 13 year old got anywhere near it, let alone scrubbed in to the damn surgery and fucking practice medicine.

Why didn't the nurse unplug the thing? Why didn't the tech cut the fucking cord? Why didn't the anesthesiologist scroll more aggressively on his iPad??

This story represents a metric shit-ton of failures, not just the surgeon/daughter.

[–] [email protected] 112 points 2 months ago

I like how hating on anesthesiologists is universal. Thank you for the chuckle.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Maybe the ananymous report came from a member of the staff. I suspect that the kind of doctor who allows his unqualified daughter to operate on a patient is also an asshole to whom it is hard to say no as a subordinate.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

So an average surgeon

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

I suspect that the kind of doctor who

Badabadam badabadabadabam oooooweeeeoooooo

[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's only brain surgery, not rocket science. You can calm down 😅

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

I mean...

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago

Workplace politics, the surgeon is likely an asshole who shoves shit down the throat of anyone who disagrees with him.

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[–] [email protected] 142 points 2 months ago (11 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Damn bro, women can be surgeons too. It's not 1890 anymore.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Women can indeed. Not so sure about 13 year old girls.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In all fairness, I think it was a joke.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

We would want to hope so

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So many people not getting that lol

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Sarcasm doesn't translate well amongst strangers via text, it's why we've got shortcuts like "/s" everyone should use

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

I dont get how the surgeon thought this was okay. When I have a regular check up I have to give permission for a student doctor to simply sit in on my appointment.

Having a 13 year old drill a hole in your head is waaay beyond that. I hope that doctor has their liscence revoked. They clearly don't give a single fuck about their patients.

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 2 months ago (2 children)

When "Bring Your Child to Work Day" goes wrong.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago

Technically, it went really well.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Aeroflot 593

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago (11 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Surgical tech here!

...I got bad news.

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Could she have done the initial drill in such a manner? Mounted drill etc

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago

Was the guy in any danger?

He was receiving emergency brain surgery.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The last time I remember children being invited to a high-intensity workplace ended up with them fatally crashing an airplane with 75 people on board.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Whilst this is absolutely true, I think it's more constructive to focus on the failure in design that led to the confusion in the cockpit.

There is no doubt that children in the cockpit contributed to the incident, but that incident could have happened with some other distraction.

The failure for the aircraft to correctly notify the pilot of the change in autopilot configuration was clearly very dangerous.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

These are the policies of take-your-daughter-to-work day. The doctor's hands were tied.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago

I missed this in the news, then saw link refers to Kronen Zeitung report which is not a great newspaper to cite so thought for sure it cannot be entirely true? But it is! And here another link from Die Presse (google translate works fine here) which tells us it was not a jerk dad who brought his kid to drill holes but an idiot mom.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago

Bring your kid to work day?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yo did she do a good job tho?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The article said the operation was completed without issue, so sounds good to me.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Did she get paid?

Or is this yet another case of a minor being exploited for unpaid labor.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

She's a goddamn hero who saved a man's LIFE and her father's CAREER after he was tired and emotional at work and could not keep his hands steady enough to perform brain surgery

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not enough caps

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago

When the hands on experience goes too far

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (12 children)

I mean we called this an apprenticeship for a thousand years or so, right?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I'm confused why she was there in the first place

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

There's a reason we call neurosurgery the arts and crafts department.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lucky, I didn’t get to drill holes during take your kid to work day

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