A cancer patient went up in flames during surgery in Romania — when doctors used an alcohol-based disinfectant, then touched her with an electric scalpel, according to a new report.
The unidentified 66-year-old woman died a week after she was seriously burned in the botched procedure, which took place in Bucharest on Dec. 22, the BBC reported.
The woman, who was suffering from pancreatic cancer, was undergoing an operation at Floreasca Hospital when surgeons used the flammable disinfectant, according to the report.
When they later started using an electric scalpel and it came in contact with the alcohol, she caught on fire — suffering burns to 40% of her body, the BBC says.
She passed away at the hospital Sunday and police are probing her death, Romanian outlets reported.
The woman’s family told local media that hospital officials only informed them that “an accident” had occurred — but never elaborated or explained the “gravity of the situation.”
“We found out some details from the press, when they were broadcast on TV stations,” the family said. “We aren’t making accusations, we just want to understand what happened.”
The country’s health minister, Victor Costache, also pledged to investigate the case, calling it “traumatic.”
“We hope to learn from this troubling episode,” he said in a statement obtained by the BBC. “Both myself and the Ministry of Health team that I coordinate will do everything possible to find out the truth.”
“The surgeons should have been aware that it is prohibited to use an alcohol-based disinfectant during surgical procedures performed with an electric scalpel,” Deputy Health Minister Horatiu Moldovan added.
Out of all the countries within the European Union, Romania spends the least on its health care system — both per resident and by the percentage of its gross domestic product, according to the BBC. The country has the highest child mortality rate in Europe — and its hospitals are persistently short-staffed and blighted by underdeveloped infrastructure.