( I'm surprised at your being surprised to my surprise 
)
and I don't stat out my NPCs either
but the Rules are the same for PCs and NPCs alike
I don't really know how to say it in english but I never considered using different Rules for my NPCs and I don't think I ever met a GM who did it.... and I'm playing RPG for 30 Years now and I'm in german Conventions quite often (6 -8 x a Year for at leats 15 Years)
Except for Shortcuts (like f.E. using 1 Autohit per 4 Dice in the pool to make skirmishes easier & faster) NPCs and PCS have to succumb to the same physical Laws of the Game World and are using the same Rules
with an even more astonished Dance
Medicineman
Ah, but the game rules need not be the laws of physics! If you really want a shock, check out something like Dungeon World sometime
I understand most Shadowrun players are primarily unused to more narrative mechanics, but my players and I myself enjoy those quite a bit, so I make use of them.
In this case, PCs are free to react however they want to their stuff getting bricked. The device in question certainly no longer works until repaired (and they are free to describe/explain themselves how this is done), but they can be shocked or horrified or just grimly nod or even start laughing and claim the NPC fell or a trap.
NPCs reacts differently depending on the character. This, I draw from the example in book. So the thug threatening the techno (or decker with hidden deck) who has his gun suddenly explode might spend their turn in shock or horror at it, rather then simply go through their actions as if nothing happened. The enemy corpsec is a cool cool cucumber even if you mess up his gun because honestly, that's not exactly the only one he's carrying...but if his whole arm starts to get jittery and sparky, even if it doesn't do actual physical damage, he's going to react to it. A decker who's being obvious about it might find themselves the new center of attention! And pity the poor fellow who gets his eye's bricked - I imagine that's going to
hurt, which might even end up translating into stun damage.
Now certainly there's no rule that states "an NPC will be suprised and lose their turn etc etc," but I have no problem making that up as I go. I don't really apply this to the PCs, in part because they don't tend to get hacked (or if they do, the spider is going to do far better then just brick one or two things - bricking is an "OH CRAP!" combat activity, as I see it), and in part because NPCs serve a different purpose, and I'm absolutely comfortable with rules working differently for them. This is what I mean by "narrative rule" "What do you do" matters more then "what are the explicit mechanical rules that you use." I mean, I use house rules, but one of them is "some stuff you do might have a greater effect" left carte blanche. Likewise, at one point I flat out told an elf Face "this guy sincerely hates elves. Any attempt at social skills will fail with him." I'm not sure if the rules support that, but it made the game better, so I did it.
So! Back to the actual question at hand: bricking.
Bricking is meant to do/be three things:
1) The object is broken
2) This is done dramatically
3) It must be repaired later with hardware to work.
Number 2 is the given fluff, but by the rules has no actual mechanical effect. Unless you decide to give it one! Likewise, number 3 does not mandate you use surgery to repair the item in question, and there is as far as I have seen no rule that requires surgery to fix 'ware, so by the rules you just use hardware. Personally, I'd say nudge the player and ask them how it works. Get them to be creative! There's already some cool answers in this thread (I'm fond of the fake skull bit that flips out, picturing it almost like a disk drive). If it helps, traditionally, implanted commlinks in 4e and implanted decks pre-4e required part of it be exposed outside of the skin.
