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Probe into illegal heart operation

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The Medical Council will ask the police to investigate an unregistered Brazilian surgeon who carried out an emergency heart operation at the invitation of Grantham Hospital.

At the same time the Hong Kong Medical Association declared it would also demand an inquiry into the conduct of the Grantham surgeons who assisted Dr Randas Batista on June 4.

The hospital asked Dr Batista, who was in Hong Kong for a cardiac conference, to operate on a patient suffering from acute heart failure.

The surgeons believed a controversial surgical technique he pioneered was the best chance of saving the patient's life.

It involves cutting away a large chunk of living heart tissue to reduce an enlarged heart to a more normal size. He has performed more than 500 such operations worldwide.

However, Grantham Hospital 'omitted' to apply for temporary registration for him - making the operation illegal.

Practising while unregistered is a criminal offence. The Medical Council said it would ask the police to investigate, even though Dr Batista left the territory on June 6.

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