At Andhra's Biggest Hospital, Plastic Surgery Done Under Cellphone Lights

Hyderabad: A doctor in one of the largest government hospitals in Andhra Pradesh had to conduct a delicate plastic surgery by cellphone light as lights over the operating table went off. A shocking video of the surgery is doing the rounds in the state.

The incident took place on Saturday at the Guntur Government Hospital inside a operation theatre that has two tables. Suddenly in the middle of the operation, the lights went off at one table. In the video, a doctor can been seen at work, assisted by two nurses as another person shone a cellphone torch.

Hospital superintendent Dr DS Rajanayak told NDTV that a fuse had blown during routine maintenance work. The operation theatre has full power back-up and it was not known why the lights failed to come on immediately. It took four to five minutes to restore the lights.

Over the last few years, several videos of surgeons working under flashlights have surfaced from various parts of India. In 2016, doctors at one of Hyderabad's biggest hospitals - the Gandhi Hospital -- admitted that they had to work by the light of cellphones in the middle of a critical operation that involved the removal of an infected part of intestine.

There had been a three-hour power outage and the lights had failed when the switchover to the power supply happened. The matter had found resonance in the Telangana assembly, with the opposition demanding the resignation of the health minister.

Dr Rajanayak said such power failures are not usual at the Guntur hospital. "The surgeon Dr Sunitha, who is an assistant professor of plastic surgery, did the best she could under the circumstances,'' he said.

The patient, who needed a nose reconstruction surgery after a dog bite, is doing well, he added.

Guntur is the largest government hospital in Andhra Pradesh. It is located just 24 km from Amaravati, the site where the state's new capital is expected to come up.