Thursday, August 2, 2007

Cellphones light up operating room

The light from the cellphone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina on July 21.

Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province.

"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given, told TN television news station. "The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark. A family member got some cellphones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light," he said.

Ricardo Molina, 39, Leonardo's brother, told La Nacion newspaper that the lights were out for an hour and his brother's anesthesia was wearing off.