Surgeons in Argentina were able to complete an operation using the light from cellphone screens after a city-wide blackout. The hospital's generator failed to kick in and they continued to work in darkness until someone stepped into the room—not the Spanish Inquisition but, nevertheless, someone completely unexpected.
Local man Leonardo Molina was on the operating table undergoing an appendectomy when the lights went out in the town of Villa Mercedes' Policlinico Juan D. Peron. A relative, thought to be the 29-year-old patient's elder brother Ricardo, collected up mobiles from other patients' families who were waiting in the hallway, and took them into the theater.
According to hospital director Dario Maurer, the blackout lasted just 20 minutes. Ricardo Molina, however, claimed that the hospital was without power for an hour, and the anesthetic administered to his brother was wearing off. [Reuters]