Italian Medico: True Dedication

Sometimes, it's the little things that mean a lot.

Take, for example, Naples-based neurosurgeon [ed: a real brain surgeon, not a "rocket surgeon?" Yes.] was performing a delicate operation to remove a tumor, when he had his own little medical problem.

Well, not so little, after all:

"An Italian surgeon had a heart attack while performing a brain cancer operation but carried on until he had removed the patient's tumour."

Now, an ordinary surgeon might have stepped aside, and tended to his own immediate medical needs. Not Dr Claudio Vitale (no apparent relation):

"I couldn't leave him at such a delicate moment ...I'm not a hero, I only did my duty."

I think most of us would beg to differ. There's a big difference between a headache and a heart attack, and one could easily be forgiven for immediately addressing the latter. Dr Vitale, though, was having none of that:

"Vitale suffered chest pains while he was halfway through the brain op but refused his team's efforts to persuade him to get emergency treatment."

The good news is that both the surgeon and his patient are "already on the mend."