Brain surgeon lets daughter, 13, drill hole in unsuspecting patient's skull during operation

A brain surgeon who was sacked after allowing her 13-year-old daughter drill a hole in a patient's skull during an operation is now suing hospital chiefs to get her job back.

The medic, not named by local media , was dismissed four months ago after horrified health chiefs heard the truth about the operation. The 39-year-old patient had been rushed to the city's for urgent surgery last January after his skull was crushed by a tree during a forestry accident.

When her daughter's role in the op began to emerge in April, hospital bosses dismissed the neurosurgeon and called in the police who broke the news to the horrified patient. Now the medic is suing the hospital for unfair dismissal, claiming it dismissed her without following proper employment law procedure.

At an initial hearing this week, her legal team said they should have dismissed her as soon as they had received her statement confessing to allowing her daughter to operate. Instead, they suspended her and then waited three months until after they had received a statement from the anaesthetist on the operation.

The court was told there was no chance of a settlement being reached because the surgeon would accept nothing short of full reinstatement. Judges remanded the case until January 20 when the surgeon and other medics who were in the operating theatre are due to give evidence.

According to its website, it is a hospital that patients "can feel safe and secure". The hospital has an estimated 7,100 employees and is engaged in "innovative, practice-orientated training and excellent, forward-looking research."

The hospital also employs an estimated 1,484 doctors and has 1,556 available beds for patients. The has contacted LKH hospital for comment.