Hospital Chief in Norway Resigns Over Unethical Practice

The chief of a hospital in Norway resigned on Thursday over the unethical surgeries done on 16 patients by doctors who removed healthy organs in the process.

"To make it easier for the hospital of Nordland to regain trust, I have informed the chairman of the board that I wish to resign," Eivind Solheim said in a letter he read at a press conference in Bodoe, a northern town where the hospital is located.

A 61-year-old woman, had her pancreas, spleen, and parts of her small intestine removed, while her oesophagus was detached and her liver was damaged because surgeons wrongly believed she had cancer, local newspaper Nordlandsposten reported.

Police and health authorities are investigating why cancer patients had the healthy organs removed.

The hospital was not authorised to perform some of the operations in the first place, according to regulations from the Helse Nord regional health authority.

Two foreign doctors working in Norway performed the operations, Nordlandsposten said, warning in an editorial that they were not the only ones to blame for the scandal.

Norwegian Health Minister Anne-Grete Stroem Solheim called the case "completely incredible and very serious."

Source: AFP