Overview
- The Bezirksgericht Graz-Ost issued not-guilty verdicts for a neurosurgeon and a colleague, citing lack of evidence that the surgeon’s 12-year-old daughter performed the drilling.
- The prosecutors had charged both with participation in bodily harm for allegedly allowing an untrained person to carry out treatment during a January 2024 emergency procedure.
- In court, the operating surgeon said the child placed one or both hands on the drill while he kept control, and OR staff offered inconsistent or incomplete recollections of who operated the device.
- Witnesses said the mother later told nurses she was proud her daughter had set her first borehole, but the judge said such remarks did not prove the child conducted the drilling.
- The patient reported ongoing psychological distress despite no reported surgical complications, and the non-final verdict points him toward civil claims as the hospital tightens OR access and employment consequences have followed.