BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Officials at a hospital in western Germany have expressed regret after it emerged that one of their surgeons got a cleaner to assist in a toe amputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public broadcaster SWR reported Friday that the incident at the Mainz University Hospital, which happened in 2020, didn\u2019t result in any complications to the patient but the doctor has since been fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hospital\u2019s chief executive, Norbert Pfeiffer, said the surgeon wrongly decided to go ahead with the routine procedure even though no qualified assistant was available, SWR reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the patient, who had received a local anesthetic, became restless the doctor asked a nearby cleaner to hold the man\u2019s leg and pass surgical instruments, according to local daily Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung. The paper reported that the cleaner had no medical experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident came to light after a hospital manager spotted the cleaner \u2014 bloody gauze pads in hand \u2014 in the operating theater, it reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis should never have happened,\u201d German news agency dpa quoted Pfeiffer as saying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Officials at a hospital in western Germany have expressed regret after it emerged that one of their surgeons got a cleaner to assist in a toe amputation. Public broadcaster SWR reported Friday that the incident at the Mainz University Hospital, which happened in 2020, didn\u2019t result in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-othernews",""],"yoast_head":"\n