A man caught fire during an operation to repair his heart, surgeons revealed in a bizarre case study.
Large amounts of oxygen and anaesthetic leaked out through a hole in the patient’s lung and, when one of the surgeon’s tools sparked, a fire broke out.
The doctors in Australia managed to put the fire out immediately and carry on with the operation, with the patient recovering unscathed from the incident.
The team who revealed the freak accident said it’s not even the first time it has happened and medics should be trained what to do in the event of a surgical fire.
Medics at Austin Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, revealed how the chest of their 60-year-old unidentified patient burst into flames.
While surgeons were beginning an operation to repair a tear in the man’s aorta – the main artery out of the heart – they punctured one of his lungs by accident.
The man had suffered from lung disease in the past and his right lung was swollen and stuck to his rib cage, which the surgeons had to break to get to his heart.
When they punctured the lung while doing this, air began to escape rapidly from the man’s lung.